Before computers were invented and 18-wheel trucks hit the road, Rand McNally was laying the groundwork for MileMaker software.
Since its introduction in electronic format in 1982, MileMaker has remained the industry standard software for routing and rating products by evolving with the changing needs of the commercial trucking market.

MileMaker and its derivative products have served thousands of trucking professionals since its introduction via the industry's widest variety of resident platforms.
Bob Simmons, general manager of Rand McNally's transportation data management subsidiary, said: "After 20 years, MileMaker is an icon in the commercial transportation industry. The incredible longevity and wide acceptance of this leading software product is evidence that innovation has been a driving force at Rand McNally."
The genesis of MileMaker was when the American Moving and Storage Assn. (AMSA) first approached Rand McNally in the early 1930s to compile a comprehensive paper Mileage Guide that would serve as the de jure standard for mileage and rating (pricing) in a regulated commercial trucking industry. Joe Harrison, president of AMSA, said: "Rand McNally was our first choice to work with. At the time we first published the Mileage Guide, many companies viewed the Midwest as the transportation hub of the U.S., and Rand McNally, located in a suburb of Chicago, was and still is the premier mapping and routing provider in the commercial transportation industry. The most impressive aspect of the MileMaker software product remains its accuracy and reliability."
Over the years, MileMaker has addressed the industry's changing needs in many ways, including selling a hardware terminal in an era (1982) when computer systems were very expensive, which allowed customers to dial in to a system hosted at Rand McNally to retrieve mileage data. Rand McNally referred to this arrangement as a TimeShare product, and it was the first hosted solution in the industry.
Today, MileMaker is capable of running resident on everything from mainframes to PDAs. Its features have evolved from simple mileage calculations to the ability to plan complex routes, input custom routing points, and process thousands of transactions per day.
MileMaker software, the only product on the market to provide HHG mileages, continues to be used extensively for rating (pricing) shipments by carriers, shippers and 3PLs. MileMaker software is offered on the industry's broadest base of resident platforms, including Mainframe, UNIX, AS/400 and Microsoft Windows. In November of 2002, Rand McNally released the Guide 18 version of MileMaker, which was effective Jan. 31, 2003.
The recently released 2003 version of MileMaker software includes:
-- A variety of mileage calculations and routes including HHG, Practical and Hazardous Materials
-- Ability to select Avoid and Prefer road segments
-- Route using city/state pairs, Standard Point Location Codes (SPLC Codes), ZIP codes, highway junctions and truck stop locations
-- Batch processing and easy integration paths to other software products
For more information, call (800) 234-4069 or visit www.trucking.randmcnally.com.