Maps.com Introduces the Industry's First Unlimited
Location Mapping Service
NavPro Cuts Pre-Trip Planning in Half and Creates Faster
Travel Times for Business Users
Santa Barbara, CA, February 15, 2005 - Maps.com, a
leading provider of mapping products and solutions, today launched NavPro, the
industry's first unlimited mapping service that can also generate optimized
driving routes for up to 18 stops. This new service not only enables
significant time savings in both the planning and the traveling stages of any
road trip, but also offers sophisticated features suited for the typical
business traveler, including real-time traffic alerts, automatic route
optimization, and local destination and attractions mapping.
"Although the online mapping industry has been
serving consumers for years, it has been severely limited in scope, enabling
only basic Point A to Point B routing," said John Serpa, President and CEO
of Maps.com. "We listened to our customers' feedback when creating
NavPro, the first-ever business reconnaissance tool to help the business
traveler be exactly where they need to be, when they need to be there."
Designed for business professionals, such as sales and
marketing executives who need to make multiple visits in one trip, NavPro's
comprehensive feature set and easy-to-use navigational toolbars are ideally
suited to a broad range of industries. According to user Giles Kenyon, the
Director of Sales at the world's oldest and largest supplier of British car
restoration parts, Moss Motors, "My position requires me to make
back-to-back business trips around the country. It has always been painstaking
to plan these trips, and I've been looking for an easy yet effective way to
streamline the process. With NavPro, my sales route and pre-planning time has
been significantly shortened, and I'm thrilled knowing that I'm at an
advantage, traveling as efficiently as possible."
NavPro consists of four primary navigational functions:
Mapping, Routing, Traffic and Geo Tools. Each component has zooming
capabilities that enable the user to drill down to a street view or zoom out to
a city or state-wide view. In addition, all aspects of NavPro are conveniently
advertising free, enabling users to plan trips and schedule itineraries without
unnecessary distractions. NavPro's unique features and capabilities include:
- Multiple address mapping: Allows users to plot
destinations in any city in the United States or Canada, and for the first
time, generate maps from an unlimited number of addresses. Integration with
Microsoft Excel allows for easy data gathering and entry.
- Optimized routing: Plots multiple-stop travel
itineraries with up to 18 destinations, and uses patent-pending technology to
automatically optimize routes. When compared to a standard multi-stop route,
NavPro's optimized routing saves users up to 20% in travel time.
- Integrated local attractions: Offers pre-travel
planning by providing location of popular attractions, such as restaurants,
hotels, gas stations, ATMs and airports.
- Real-time traffic information: Continuously monitors
traffic, accident roadblocks, and construction activity in 69 major
metropolitan areas in the U.S. and incorporates this data into travelers'
optimized routes. When users scroll over the traffic icons, information appears
pertaining to the nature of the incident. If route is congested, users can get
a "Smart Route" bypassing known congestion.
- Reliable traffic alerts: Sends traffic reports via
email when preferred routes are affected. Up to 8 routes can be monitored at a
time.
The final component to NavPro's offering, GeoTools,
applies the unlimited address mapping function to longitude and latitude
coordinates, generating maps based on locations tracked by GPS devices.
GeoTools is an ideal mapping service for engineers and urban planners who need
to translate coordinates, rather than exact addresses.
Pricing and Availability
Subscriptions to NavPro are currently available at
www.maps.com/navpro for a weekly or monthly fee of $6.95 USD or $14.95 USD
respectively. Annual rates are regularly priced at $69.95 USD, but with this
announcement, Maps.com is offering a special introductory price of $59.95 USD.
The offer expires on March 15th, 2005, at 12 a.m. PT and Maps.com standard
terms and conditions apply.
For additional information or to inquire about corporate
NavPro accounts, please contact Chris Janson at
cjanson@maps.com or call him at
805-685-3100 x 106.
About Maps.com
Founded in 1991, Santa Barbara based Maps.com is the
industry's most comprehensive mapping services company with offerings in the
business, consumer, and education marketplaces. Whether it's creating a
regional wall map or planning a multi-stop travel route online, Maps.com
strives to meet the mapping needs of today's digital era. Today, over 2
million monthly visitors, 8,500 U.S. Schools, and both small and large
companies, such as Lowe's Home Improvement, Nextel, and AAA currently benefit
from Maps.com's vast service offerings. For more information, visit
www.maps.com.
