Your Escort Driver Shouldn't Need a Subscription

Whitney S. Johnson · CEO of RouteAll · 4 years running height pole, mostly east coast, escorting data center equipment.

Last verified September 8, 2026 against the RouteAll app source. Product claims here describe the app as built, not as planned.

A pilot car route sharing app should be free for the pilot car. The escort is hired per load, works for many trucks, and needs the permitted route, not an account. Today the route arrives by text or as a driver's own map pin. A RouteAll shared route opens for the escort with no account and no charge.

This guide covers what the escort needs, how the handoff works today, and exactly what a shared link does and does not do.

In one minute: the pilot car is paid by the load, not by the app, and one escort may run for five different haulers in a month. If every hauler's app charges the escort a monthly fee, the route gets sent as a screenshot instead, and a screenshot has no turns in it. Today the route usually arrives as a permit by text, or as a map the driver built by hand in Google Maps or inRoute.

A RouteAll shared route is different in one way that matters: it is the permit's route, opened free by anyone holding the link. The escort can view it, follow it with live guidance, and get warned when they leave it. It cannot be edited, it never draws a new road, and it dies after 30 days.

How does the route reach the pilot car today?

Today the route reaches the pilot car in one of three ways. The permit arrives by text or email, or the driver builds a map by hand, or road names are read over the phone. None of them is a shared route. Whitney describes the second one plainly: "Sometimes the driver might have it mapped in Google Maps or inRoute."

The three handoffs differ in what the escort actually receives:

The permit by text is the most complete handoff, and it is also the one Whitney asks for. Her own words to a driver: "Send me the permit so I can look over the route." The problem is not the document.

The problem is that a PDF has no turn-by-turn, and the escort drives it first.

What does the escort need before the first mile?

The escort needs five things before the first mile. They are the road-by-road route, the load's width, height and length, the curfews and travel rules, where each escort rides, and the radio channel. The route alone is not enough, and the load's numbers must come from the permit itself.

A height pole car with no height is a car with a pole.

• Road-by-road route. Every road on the permit, in order. The escort drives ahead into each one before the truck does.
• Dimensions. Width sets the escort count; height sets the pole. The numbers on the permit, not the numbers the driver remembers.
• Curfews and travel rules. The section of the permit drivers misread most, covered in How to read a Texas TxDMV oversize permit.
• Escort positions. Front on two-lane, rear on four-lane in several states. The state-by-state numbers are in Pilot car requirements by state.
• Radio channel. Agreed before the move, not at the first overpass.

A shared route carries the first item well and the second and third only as extracted fields.

The escort still reads the permit.

Why should the escort not pay for the app?

The escort should not pay because the escort does not hold the permit, the load or the liability. The hauler holds all three. A per-seat fee on the escort side means the route does not get shared through the app at all; it gets sent as a photo. The hauler's plan should carry the share, and on RouteAll it does.

Three reasons this is the right split:

• One escort, many haulers. A pilot car works for whoever books the load. Five haulers on five apps is five subscriptions for one driver.
• The permit belongs to the hauler. The hauler uploaded it, the hauler's name is on it, and the hauler answers for the route. Sharing it is the hauler's job.
• A paywall on the receiving end kills the feature. If opening the link means creating an account, the escort taps back and asks for a screenshot.

RouteAll's free tier is stated on the RouteAll home page: viewing a shared route is free. The escort pays nothing to open, view or follow a route someone shared with them.

What does a RouteAll shared route show the escort?

A shared route opens a map of the permitted route, the origin and destination, the total distance, and the list of permit steps. In the app, the escort can switch to follow mode: live GPS on the same line, progress by section, and a warning when they leave the route. The link works with no account, for anyone holding it.

Two views exist, depending on what the escort has:

• In the RouteAll app, the link opens the full route: the map line, the pins, the step list and follow mode. Signed in or not, the route is the same.
• In a browser, the link opens a preview page with 4 fields: origin, destination, distance and step count. It never shows the map line, the waypoints or who sent it.

Follow mode is view-only by construction, not by a setting. The escort's screen has no way to edit the sender's trip, log mileage against it, or mark it complete.

Off-route detection runs the same thresholds as the sender's own app, on the same line: it is the same computation, not a weaker one.

If the driver turns on progress sharing, the escort also sees how far along the route the truck is. What is shared is a position along the permitted line, not a raw GPS track, and it is marked stale after 90 seconds without an update.

What does the shared link not do?

The shared link does not reroute, does not let the escort change anything, does not reveal the sender's identity or precise GPS track, and does not last forever. It expires 30 days after it is created unless the driver revokes it sooner. Each absence is deliberate, and the app says so on screen rather than hiding it.

• No rerouting. A missed turn gets a warning and nothing else. Drawing a new road would need the load's dimensions, which the share does not carry, and the new road would not be on the permit.
• No editing. Pins, steps, mileage and trip status all belong to the sender.
• No identity. The page never receives the sender's name or account. If the driver never turns on progress sharing, there is no truck on the map.
• No permit. The share carries the route and the steps. It does not carry the permit number or the travel rules.

What does a failed handoff cost?

There is no honest single number. Asked what it costs when the route does not reach the escort correctly, Whitney answered: "This varies depending on the circumstances." That is the truthful answer, and this guide does not invent one. What varies is the state, whether troopers are called, whether the load must be re-permitted, and whether anything was struck.

The one thing that does not vary is who pays. The penalty for a truck off its permitted roads lands on the permittee, not the pilot car. What that looks like state by state is in What happens if you leave your permitted route.

A handoff that costs nothing on the escort side removes the cheapest reason for it to fail.

Before you roll

Send the escort the permit and the shared route, not one or the other.

The permit carries the rules; the shared route carries the turns. Agree the radio channel and confirm the load's width and height out loud. RouteAll does not issue permits or guarantee compliance, and the driver remains responsible for the load; questions about a share that will not open go to RouteAll support.

Common questions

Further reading

RouteAll reads the permit you provide. It does not issue permits or guarantee compliance. The driver remains responsible for the load. Product behaviour described here was checked against the app source on September 8, 2026 and may change; the RouteAll driver guides index lists the current set.