Motive (Formerly KeepTruckin) Review and Pricing: Best Value for Money Fleet Management System

We’ve compared the five best fleet management systems in Canada and found that Motive (4.1/5) offers the best value for money. Motive offers fast data updates, an incredible five-year hardware warranty, monthly subscription plans, and a unique no-fee fuel card. 

In April 2022, KeepTruckin, a leading Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) provider, rebranded as Motive to serve a wider range of industries. The move reflects the company’s expansion beyond trucking and logistics, as it aims to provide fleet management solutions to businesses across various sectors.

The search for the perfect fleet management system can be daunting, but it all boils down to three critical factors: tracking capabilities, cost-saving potential, and vehicle management features. Our review delves into these areas and sees how Motive stacks up against its competition. 

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Motive’s Pros and Cons

✓ Swift Data Refresh Rate

Motive boasts the fastest data updates out of the five best fleet management companies in Canada. Motive devices collect GPS fleet tracking location and fleet telematics data for each vehicle every one to three seconds, beating our best overall provider, Verizon, which offers users 30-second data updates. 

Quick data updates ensure you get the most accurate info on your fleet’s location and status. If you want to know more about the benefits of having a fleet management system and how it works, check out our comprehensive guide to GPS tracking.

✓ Unique DRIVE Risk Scoring System

Motive boasts a unique DRIVE (Driver, Road, Imaging, Vehicle, and Environment) risk score system, which accurately measures a driver’s risk score that is compared with that of their peers. Although it may not provide cool incentives for safe driving practices (like Azuga’s driver app), Motive boasts a distinct algorithm that can examine the variables that could be impacting a risky driving event.

Unlike the usual driver scorecards that detect distracted driving and risky driving behaviour, Motive’s DRIVE risk score considers various additional variables beyond the event itself, such as location, weather, and the vehicle’s make and model. By considering these factors, Motive’s algorithm can provide a highly accurate assessment of what affects your driver’s performance.

✓ Monthly Subscriptions

Motive stands out in the vehicle tracking industry by offering an exceptionally flexible monthly subscription plan, which is especially beneficial for new businesses seeking to trial the service before making a long-term commitment. 

This is in contrast to many other providers, including Verizon, Azuga, and Samsara, which typically require a standard three-year contract. RAM Tracking, on the other hand, offers a minimum commitment of one year.

✗ Does Not Automate Maintenance Schedule

Unfortunately, Motive doesn’t have an automated maintenance scheduling feature, leaving you or your fleet managers to manually juggle maintenance tasks. This sees its score drop to 4.5/5 in our vehicle management category, taking fourth place.

If you’re operating a smaller fleet, you can establish a routine maintenance plan based on your manufacturer’s recommendations for each vehicle in your fleet. However, this could be a herculean task for larger fleets. Consider Verizon (5/5) or Samsara (5/5) if you want to spend less time on vehicle maintenance admin and more time on other important tasks.

✗ No Driver Dispatching and Scheduling Abilities

Motive lacks driver dispatching and scheduling abilities, which can lead to reduction in operations and productivity. This means you’ll have to manually assign drivers to vehicles and create schedules, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors. The repercussions? Delays, missed deadlines, and increased costs.

If you want to maximize fleet efficiency, check out Verizon, Samsara, or the top contender for efficient routing, Azuga. 

How Much Does Motive Cost?

Motive scores 3.9/5 in our analysis of its value for money, taking first place in our pricing category. It stands out among the five best fleet management companies in Canada as it offers monthly subscription plans, which is uncommon in the vehicle tracking industry where most providers require commitment to a three-year contract.

Unfortunately, Motive doesn’t publish its pricing online. However, our researchers have found that Motive’s hardware is over a few hundred dollars. In comparison, Samsara, which scores 2.5/5 in our pricing category, offers its hardware for around $99 to $148*. 

Both Motive and Samsara offer a five-year warranty on select hardware, but only Motive’s hardware is designed to operate in harsh environments and remote working conditions. So, if you find yourself in a deserted location with no connectivity, your data is stored locally on your device until it can be uploaded to the cloud. 

Unfortunately, Motive does not provide a complimentary installation setup, which is exclusively offered by RAM (3.7/5). Furthermore, Motive’s trial period is only limited to 14 days, which is notably shorter compared to Samsara’s and RAM’s 30-day free trial.

Looking for the best cheap GPS solutions? We’ve got you covered with our handpicked selection of the most cost-effective GPS tracking systems in Canada.

How Does Motive Compare With Other Fleet Management Software?

Our latest in-depth survey on the best vehicle tracking companies in Canada reveals that fleet owners prioritize three essential factors when selecting a fleet management system: robust tracking capabilities, significant potential for cost savings, and advanced vehicle management features. Let’s see how Motive compares with other competitors in these three categories.

Vehicle Tracking Features

Motive may take last place in our tracking category with a 4.3/5, but it doesn’t lag too far behind! In fact, it boasts the fastest refresh rate of one to three seconds, beating perfect scorer Verizon’s 30-second updates. 

Unfortunately, the reason for Motive’s drop in its score is because it doesn’t allow you to set up custom locations and geofences, or virtual boundaries around specific areas. This means you can’t specify job sites or delivery zones, which could help you track when your vehicles enter or exit these areas. Moreover, Motive does not have the ability to streamline driver scheduling and dispatching. If you’re looking for a system that can do all of these, Verizon would be an ideal option, despite being pricier. 

Ability To Reduce Fleet Costs

Motive is equipped with automatic route optimization features that can help you find the swiftest route to your destination, helping to cut fuel and labour costs. However, it doesn’t offer traffic alerts, driver scheduling, or dispatching abilities. If you want to streamline your daily operations, you can check out Verizon, Samsara, or Azuga. These providers offer all these features, but are also pricier. 

One noteworthy feature that Motive has, however, is its no-fee fuel card. Just like Verizon’s fuel card, it can track misuse and fuel fraud, but Motive also allows you to save on fuel as well as maintenance expenses (scroll down to Motive’s standout features to find out more). 

Vehicle Management Features

Motive places fourth in our vehicle management category with a 4.5/5. Motive offers a distinctive Vehicle Gateway that carries out automatic diagnostics and maintenance checks on vehicles. This feature allows you to detect fault codes originating from the engine in the Fault Codes report, giving you insight into upcoming maintenance. 

Unfortunately, Motive doesn’t have Verizon’s (5/5) comprehensive maintenance scheduling tools, so you’ll need to do some manual scheduling to ensure your vehicles remain in tip-top shape. This involves setting schedules for routine inspections, servicing, and repairs based on factors such as mileage and engine hours. 

However, despite the need for manual scheduling, Motive still offers significant benefits in terms of proactive maintenance. Its Vehicle Gateway feature helps you detect and address issues early on, reducing the likelihood of unexpected breakdowns and avoiding costly repairs in the long run.

Motive’s Other Standout Features

No-Fee Motive Card

Launched in April 2022, Motive expanded into spend management with its no-fee Motive card, the first ever corporate card that is natively integrated with a vehicle tracking platform. With this Motive Card, fleet companies can streamline payment processes and track expenses more efficiently. Moreover, this integration can help you gain better insights into your fleet expenses, allowing you to track your fuel spend and generate fleet insights that could affect these expenses.

Verizon offers a similar natively integrated fuel card that can also help you track fuel expenses and monitor inefficient fuel use. However, Motive takes it to the next level with industry-leading discounts on tires and other vehicle and maintenance expenses.

Reefer Monitoring With Smart Sensors

In October 2022, Motive launched its intelligent Environmental Sensors that offers real-time monitoring of fleet temperature and humidity. This gives you the option to set temperature alerts and get notifications when a refrigerated trailer goes outside of its ideal temperature range.

It is worth noting that Samsara offers a comparable Reefer Monitoring add-on, but it does not offer the same level of detailed reporting as Motive.

With Motive, you can also access each of your refrigerated assets’ historical temperature reports, which are highly detailed and can be especially helpful when resolving any disputes related to temperature-sensitive cargo or load claims.

Regrettably, this smart sensor device is not free (neither is Samsara’s). As Motive does not disclose its pricing information online, it would be best to inquire about this add-on with a Motive representative if you operate in cold chain transportation.

What Kind of Business Is Motive Best For?

While Motive’s hardware can be quite pricey, our researchers found that it delivers the best value for money as it has durable hardware that is backed by a five-year warranty, as well as reliable tracking capabilities. As such, we recommend Motive for heavy vehicle fleets that want to keep an eye on their equipment 24/7. 

Motive’s impressive one to three-second refresh rate also makes it a strong contender for companies that prioritize real-time location tracking. We also recommend Motive for transportation and logistics companies that want to manage the efficiency of their fleets, ensuring that the vehicles are operating in a safe and cost-effective manner. 

Does Motive Have Good Customer Reviews?

Motive has been named The Most Implementable System in 2023 by G2, and also received impressive customer review scores. 

With a 4.3/5 rating on G2 from 214 reviews and a 4.5/5 rating on Capterra from 1,482 reviews, it’s clear that Motive is a highly-rated choice for businesses seeking a reliable fleet management system.