We may receive a commission from our partners if you click on a link to review or purchase a product or service. Click to Learn More
We tested 20 of the best fleet management systems across 12 subcategories and Motive offers the fastest system updates of any of them. Users receive a wide range of tools, including expansive driver safety features, good dash cam integrations, and a blazing fast one-to-three-second refresh rates.
Plus, all features are available for one flat payment plan, so users aren’t hit by a lot of small hidden add-on fees when they get their bill. For fuel purchases, the Motive Card has a late fee of 5% or $40, whichever is more.
With its focus on safety and fast response times, Motive is perfect for delivery fleets that frequently navigate last-mile routes, and it offers self-coaching tools that can further cut down repetitive tasks. Read on for the full review, or grab a quick custom Motive quote.
Motive: Great safety with 3-second refresh rates
Great for data-crunchers that want real-time visibility on drivers, fuel, and more.
Try Motive now
- Motive stands out for fast, real-time telemetrics and for a wide range of features.
- It also has a lot of safety features, making it great for delivery fleets with frequent last-mile routes.
- Motive’s fuel-tracking tools manage IFTA needs, flag high fuel usage
- The Motive Card offers fuel discounts and comes with a $250,000 fraud guarantee.
How Does Motive Manage Drivers and Vehicles?
Motive helps you manage drivers’ locations, actions, and safety, and provides most tools you’ll need for vehicle needs, like maintenance and security.
I found the platform only lacks one vehicle tracking feature that might be important for safety, and that’s a dedicated panic button. Other forms of alerts are available. It has automated alerts that can warn managers of incidents within seconds and driver messaging to aid communication.
Motive’s noteworthy vehicle and driver features include detailed fuel tracking, as well as a few benefits that many fleet systems don’t offer. One is cargo temperature tracking, a much-needed tool for any fleet that ships refrigerated goods.
Another is a personalized coaching system to help drivers improve their safety, which I’ll cover in more detail in the “safety features” section.
The Fleet View section of the Motive software shows fleet managers all the vehicles on a live map. Source: Motive
Vehicle maintenance and security
Fleet safety is core to success. Motive’s Vehicle Gateway hardware will run automatic diagnostics and maintenance checks on your vehicles. Like other top providers, Verizon and Samsara, Motive’s reports cover distance summaries, and the software lets managers set custom maintenance reminders based on time, distance, or hours used.
With these reports, dedicated fleets can learn and apply data-driven insights on topics like which vehicle types have the longest lifespan and which preventative maintenance tactics are best.
Fleet managers can create reports to log upcoming, overdue, and completed services. Drivers can also cover their DVIR reporting needs through the mobile app.
Theft prevention measures from Motive include real-time alerts when assets are unexpectedly moved, powered by the battery-powered Asset Gateway hardware.
Motive also includes cargo temperature and humidity tracking functionality, a perk that many fleet systems including Azuga and Omnitracs do not offer.
Fuel management
Our researchers gave Motive a perfect driver management score, due in part to its fuel-tracking tools. The platform can log fuel consumption by driver, vehicle, or fleet, helping managers spot ways to reduce high fuel use.
Managers can also view a driver or vehicle’s idle time within their dashboard, while idling alerts can be set to warn them in real time. IFTA taxes are tracked through the dashboard as well.
Motive Card, the system’s fuel card, offers discounts at participating stations and can be used wherever Mastercard is accepted, not just at fuel stations. The Motive Card integrates with telematics data for additional fintech anti-fraud features.
It “can tell you if anyone bought fuel further than 15ft away from the pump,” Motive told us. Plus, a dozen other fuel integrations are available from the platform’s app store.
The Motive Fuel hub holds all fuel-related features and data. Source: Motive
Azuga remains the best fleet system for fuel tracking tools overall, as it offers even more granular functions, such as automatically checking if idling happens at specific locations. However, fuel tracking is still one area where Motive excels.
Safety features
Motive’s system relies on detailed data tracking tools — vehicle speedometer, GPS-based speed, accelerometer, and gyroscope — to automatically identify risky driving events and flag them for managers with alerts.
Motive’s software will automatically rank events by severity for easy processing, which is one example of how automations can boost efficiency just as much as real-time communication.
Crash reporting tools can be used to create incident reports featuring vehicle telematics data like speed and braking behavior, along with location, driver details, video screenshots, and vehicle information.
The Motive Safety hub holds all the features managers or drivers can use to access fleet safety and view incident reports. Source: Motive
Motive tracks driver history and supports driver IDs for easier identification.
The dashboard has a DRIVE risk score that helps managers understand each driver’s safety based on the past two weeks. Managers can coach the bottom-performing drivers using DRIVE, to help them improve. Drivers will get ELD compliance tools. They’ll also get two-way messaging, a perk that a few fleet systems (like Linxup) do not offer.
Like other top systems, like Samsara and Teletrac Navman, Motive does not include a dedicated panic button, which could potentially speed up a response. Panic button aside, Motive’s safety tools are comprehensive, with its simple-to-use safety coaching system a particular standout.
Motive
In Short
-
Pros
- Industry-leading speed, with 1-3 second refresh times
- Good value for cost due to volume of features
- Lengthy 5-year hardware warranties
-
Cons
- Some features are US-only
- No engine temperature tracking, so vehicle overheating is caught after the fact
30 Second Facts
- Price: Not public
- Compliance: DVIR, IFTA, ELD
- Great driver safety tools
- Self-installation
- 24/7 Phone Support
- Free 14-Day Trial
Images
How Does Motive Track Vehicles?
Motive offers many of the most important vehicle tracking tools and stands out in particular for its unbeatable refresh rates, which can be as fast as one second.
Motive offers “activity detail” reports, which cover individual vehicles or assets. Users can also benefit from core tools, including but not limited to:
- Email alerts
- Dispatch
- Geofencing and custom locations
- Traffic and severe weather alerts
- Fleet view: A “Fleet View” section of the software displays each vehicle’s real-time locations, mileage, and other telematics information
Motive’s lightning-fast one-to-three second refresh rate easily beats industry leaders Verizon and Samsara, which offer rates between 30 and 60 seconds. Motive’s asset tracking refresh rate is one minute.
For most fleets, I found Motive’s tracking tools more than enough to help with streamlining routes and productivity.
Read more about the best route planning software available today.
How Much Does Motive Cost?
Motive, formerly called KeepTruckin, does not make its pricing public, although it does use a one-plan-fits-all approach. It gives all fleet system features to all users, from its fuel card to its safety tools.
Motive offers its own hardware for a separate licensing charge, in addition to its software costs, although fleets can often use their existing third-party hardware as well.
Many of their core hardware devices come with a lifetime warranty (for active users only), including the Vehicle Gateway, Asset Gateway, and road-facing and dual-facing smart dash cams. Software contracts can be billed monthly and renewed annually with a 30-day cancellation period, making them less restrictive than those from Verizon and Samsara, which have three-year minimums.
The Motive Card comes with a late fee: 5% of the invoice balance or $40, whichever is more.
Motive does offer demos and a custom-length free trial (the trial duration is dependant on the size of your fleet).
Do you currently have a fleet management system?
Try Motive, one of our top-rated vehicle tracking providers.
Motive’s latest updates include an expanded Trip Images feature, which lets managers browse all dash cam images across a trip history (rather than just safety events).
The platform also revamped its alert system recently. New tools include an alert summary page, a settings view, and a redesigned alert creation process that lets users build their own notifications.
Motive Help and Support
Motive offers 24/7 phone and email support to its users, along with an online knowledge center that users can consult first, in order to identify the most common concerns or issues.
Not on offer? Motive lacks a live chat support option and does not provide any in-person installation or setup help.
If you need the best customer service support, we recommend Omnitracs, which offers everything Motive has, plus live chat and installation aid.
Installation and Other Features
Motive’s ruggedized hardware comes with a five-year warranty, with options for plugging into a vehicle’s OBD-II port, for easy installs, or directly hardwiring a device to the engine, for greater data tracking.
The software is designed for use in remote geographic areas as well, with an option to record data locally when there’s no connectivity, as well as cloud recording. Role-based access helps keep data secure and on a need-to-know basis.
Motive is best for US-based fleets, as some features (including core dispatch tools) aren’t available in Canada.
Motive dash cams
Motive integrates with its own dash cams and those from other providers. Its dash cams include integrated batteries, so they won’t lose power in a collision, and they integrate with Motive’s Safety hub, so that all safety incidents come with video footage that drivers can review themselves.
Motive’s dual-facing dash cams sync up with its software to track driver telematics. Source: Motive
Motive supports AI-powered dash cam functions, and frequently rolls out new AI-powered ability for fleets. Most recently, they added Eating Detection in March 2026, a tool that records drivers if they’re eating while driving and can trigger an in-cab alert if needed.
These powerful dash cam integrations make Motive a standout for many fleets. A recent Tech.co report found 36% of logistics firms are prioritizing dash cam adoption as a key part of their 2026 tech stack.
The service has about 250 pre-built integrations. It offers a Motive Card for fuel tracking along with a fuel hub that tracks IFTA reports and fuel purchases from the Motive Driver App, for easier review from managers.
Motive asset tracking
Motive also has an option for asset tracking, delivering location and telematics data once a minute with the right hardware. It has no GPS integrations, but this is common for fleet systems, which track location themselves. It also lacks a panic button and weather alerts.
Motive Alternatives
Here’s a quick look at the best fleet management alternatives.
|
Price from
The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs
|
Rating
Based on price, tracking features, driver management, vehicle management, product features, and help and support
|
Price rating
|
Contract length
|
Warranty
|
Free trial
|
Free demo
|
|||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SPONSORED
 |
BEST MOTIVE ALTERNATIVE
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
Motive (formerly KeepTruckin) |
Verizon Connect Reveal |
GPS Insight |
Samsara |
Teletrac Navman TN360 |
Omnitracs |
Azuga |
NexTraq |
Lytx |
Geotab |
Spireon |
GPS Trackit |
Quartix |
US Fleet Tracking |
Fleetio |
|||||
|
Custom |
Custom (typically from $23.50/vehicle/month) |
$14.95/vehicle/month |
Custom (typically from $27/vehicle/month) |
About $25/vehicle/month |
Custom |
$25/vehicle/month |
$99/vehicle/month |
Custom |
Custom |
Custom |
$24.99/vehicle/month |
$14.90/vehicle/month |
$24.95/vehicle/month |
$4/vehicle/month |
|||||
|
4.2
|
4.7
|
3.8
|
4.7
|
4.6
|
4.5
|
4.3
|
4.3
|
4.3
|
4.1
|
4.1
|
3.9
|
3.9
|
3.7
|
3.6
|
3.5
|
3.4
|
3.1
|
2.3
|
1.9
|
|
3.9
|
2.5
|
4.2
|
2.5
|
3.4
|
3.3
|
2.5
|
2.5
|
3.7
|
3.2
|
2.0
|
2.5
|
4.6
|
3.9
|
3.8
|
3.2
|
4.4
|
3.6
|
4.1
|
4.8
|
|
1 year or monthly |
3-year minimum (initial) |
No contracts |
3-year minimum |
12-60 months |
1 year |
3 years |
Monthly |
Monthly |
6 months initial |
1 year |
3 years |
12-60 months |
No contracts |
Monthly or higher |
1-3 years |
12 months |
Monthly |
Monthly or 1 year |
Monthly |
|
5 years |
Factory warranty for US; none for CA |
For length of subscription |
5 years for most hardware |
First 12 months |
1-3 years |
Lifetime |
Lifetime |
1 year |
1 year |
1 year – lifetime |
1 year |
Lifetime |
Lifetime |
Up to 3 years |
1 year |
Lifetime |
1 year |
6 month – lifetime |
1 year |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Motive vs Verizon Connect
Verizon Connect has one of the most widely used fleet management systems on the market today, and for good reason. It offers nearly every feature you’ll need, even including engine temperature tracking and driver ID.
It also sells add-ons, like field service or dash cams — although each addition will increase the final price tag.
The Verizon Connect Reveal fleet software includes a street view of all vehicles (provided they have dash cams). Source: Tech.co testing
Once again, it’s worth mentioning that Motive does have one big benefit Verizon lacks, as it offers a one-to-three-second refresh time, compared with Verizon’s 30-second refresh rate.
Motive vs GPS Insight
In contrast with Verizon’s feature-packed approach, GPS Insight is the pared-down Motive alternative. It offers core features including routing and maintenance tracking, as well as report templates for fuel use, compliance, driving events, and more.
Traffic and weather alerts are not included with GPS Insight, although the live map still tracks both factors.
The GPS Insight interface can be used to create a range of alerts, including speeding, idling, and service reminders. Source: Tech.co testing
GPS Insight will handle the needs of any small fleet and is a particularly attractive pick for frugal operations, given its $14.95 per vehicle, per month, starting cost.
Methodology: How We Rated and Reviewed Motive
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we’re giving you the clearest, most useful recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with a research framework designed in-house to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we analyzed 20 fleet management products across 51 different areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we’ve established a fleet management testing methodology that scores each product in six core assessment areas and six additional subcategories, covering everything, from the driver management features to value for money, customer support, and much more.
Our main testing categories for fleet management systems are:
- Price: The cost associated with using the fleet management software, including upfront costs, subscription fees, hardware costs (if applicable), and any additional charges for advanced features or add-ons.
- Tracking: The core functionality of the fleet management software, which involves monitoring and tracking the location and movements of vehicles in real-time, including features such as GPS tracking, route optimization, and geofencing.
- Driver management: The features and tools provided by the fleet management software to manage and monitor driver activities. This can include driver behavior monitoring, driver performance reports, and driver identification.
- Vehicle management: The functionalities that allow for the efficient management and maintenance of vehicles, such as vehicle health monitoring and maintenance scheduling.
- Product features: The additional functionalities and capabilities offered by the fleet management software, beyond basic tracking and management, such as real-time alerts and notifications, or driver routing and dispatching.
- Support: The resources, assistance, and guidance provided by the fleet management software company to users, including phone support, email or chat support, and online forums.
When it comes to calculating a product’s final score, not all testing and research categories are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, which are merely “nice to have”. After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full-time in-house researchers, who re-run testing and research processes regularly to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Motive is a great fleet system, standing out for its safety features, AI tools, dash cams, and fast refresh rates.
Motive isn’t the top dog in our fleet systems rankings due to some unavailable features — you won’t get a dedicated panic button, for example. Still, you should have all the functions you need to run a well-oiled fleet, with the unbeatable safety tools and high-speed refresh rates that any delivery firm needs.
FAQs
Motive’s mobile app is included with its basic software package, but the exact price of the software plan is not public. Some estimates put the cost at between $25 and $50 per vehicle, per month.
Motive is great for truckers: it offers the best ELD compliance tracking out of the fleet systems we tested and it integrates with a vehicle’s onboard telematics, as well as its hardware device, so managers have even more data. It offers great expanded safety tools beyond government compliance as well, at a good price.
Motive lists recommended mobile devices on its website — many Samsung and iPhone series are listed, but older ones may not be, and no Amazon or Motorola devices are recommended.
