Motive Fleet Management Review 2024: Features, Costs and Alternatives

Motive offers the fastest system updates of any of the best fleet management systems: Users can get access to a wide range of tools, including expansive driver safety features, good dash camera integrations, and blazing-fast one-to-three-second refresh rates. Plus, all features are available for one flat rate, so users aren’t nickel-and-dimed for their bill.

With its focus on safety and fast response times, Motive is perfect for delivery fleets that are frequently navigating last-mile routes. Some common features are missing (such as custom location options, as well as weather and traffic alerts), but Motive still helps drivers gain time back in other ways, with self-coaching tools that can help cut down repetitive tasks.

Read on for our full review of Motive’s main functions, pricing details, and support network. Once you’re filled in on what’s what, a custom Motive quote is just a few clicks away.

In this guide:

• Motive Driver and Vehicle Management
• Motive Vehicle Tracking
• Motive Pricing and Value
• Motive Help and Support
• Motive Installation and Other Features
• Motive Alternatives
• Methodology: How We Rated and Reviewed Motive
• Verdict

Motive Driver and Vehicle Management

Motive offers all the top tools you’ll need to manage drivers’ locations, actions, and safety, as well as most of the tools you’ll need for vehicle needs like maintenance and security.

I found it only lacks one vehicle tracking feature that might be important for your fleet, and that’s a dedicated panic button. However, it has automated alerts that can warn managers of incidents within seconds, as well as 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 the personalized coaching system for helping drivers improve their safety, which I cover in more detail in the “safety features” section.

The Fleetview section of the Motive software shows managers all the vehicles on a live map. Image source: Motive

Vehicle maintenance and security

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.

Managers can create reports to log upcoming, overdue, and completed services. Drivers can 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 even 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 5/5 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 fifteen feet 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. Image 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, but fuel tracking is 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 even 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. Image 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 Samsara and Teletrac, 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 Vehicle Tracking

Motive offers many of the most important 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 email alerts, dispatch, geofencing, and automatic route optimization, thanks to a “Fleet View” section of the software that displays each vehicle’s real-time locations, mileage, and other telematics information. And when we say real-time, we mean it: Motive’s lightning-fast 1-3 second refresh rates easily beat industry leaders Verizon and Samsara, which both offer rates between 30 and 60 seconds. Motive’s asset tracking refresh rates are one minute.

Motive does lack a couple of tracking tools. First, it won’t offer custom locations, a functionality many fleet systems use to reference frequently visited areas when creating routes. It also does not offer weather and traffic alerts, which some fleet systems offer to help flag unexpected delays that might require a reroute.

If your fleet makes frequent route adjustments, you may instead want to pick Verizon or Samsara, which do offer these alerts and custom location tools. For most fleets, though, I found Motive’s tracking tools more than enough to help streamline routing and drive up productivity.

Read more about the Best Route Planning Software available today

Motive Pricing and Value

Motive used to be called KeepTruckin before it rebranded in 2022, and its prices back then came in a four-tiered structure: A free plan, a $20 per vehicle, per month starter plan, a $35 per vehicle, per month Pro plan, and a custom enterprise plan.

These prices might offer a ballpark for what costs to expect, but they’re a little out of date: Today, Motive does not make its pricing public, and it uses 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 five-year warranty, including the Vehicle Gateway, Asset Gateway, and road-facing and dual-facing smart dash cams. Software contracts can be renewed annually or monthly with a 30-day cancellation period, making them less restrictive than those from Verizon and Samsara, which have 3-year minimums.

The Motive Card comes with a late fee: 5% of the invoice balance or $40, whichever is more. However, the provider does offer demos and a 14-day free trial, which is a little shorter than the industry standard 30-day trial period, but should be enough to give you a feel for the features.

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. Our research team gave it a middle-of-the-road 3.5/5 support score, tying it with our top overall pick, Verizon, and putting it a little below Samsara’s 4/5 score in this category. If you need the best customer service support, however, we recommend Omnitracs, which offers everything Motive has, plus live chat and installation aid.

Motive Installation and Other Features

Some fleets may spend their time in remote geographic areas, whether they’re in the US Forest Service or selling outdoor generators. If that’s you, Motive has the durable hardware you need.

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 locations 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 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 integrates with its own dash cams and others. 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. Image source: Motive

The service has integrations including 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 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

Motive is a top option among the fleet management systems we recommend, but it’s far from the only one. Here’s a quick look at two of the best alternatives for anyone considering Motive.

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 any feature you’ll need, even including engine temperature tracking and Driver ID. Even the most specialized fleet will be sure to have all the add-ons and functions, although prices will rise beyond Verizon’s basic $23.50 per vehicle, per month starting point.

Once again, it’s worth mentioning that Motive does has one big benefit Verizon lacks, as it offers 1-2 second refresh times, compared to Verizon’s 30-second refresh rate.

Motive vs. GPS Insight

In contrast to Verizon’s feature-packed approach, GPS Insight is the pared-down Motive alternative: it offers core features including routing, maintenance tracking, and report templates for fuel use, compliance, driving events, and more. However, you won’t get as many types of alerts — traffic and weather alerts are not included, although the live map tracks both conditions.

The GPS Insight interface can be used to create a range of alerts including speeding, idling, and service reminders. Image source: Tech.co

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