Everything you need to know about truck GPS tracking
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Trucking is full of surprises. One minute you’re sitting in your cabin, unloading a routine consignment of construction materials; the next, you’re catapulted back in your seat, looking up at the sky and wondering where the road went.
Here’s the point: perspective is everything. Without truck GPS tracking technology, you're restricted to your own, limited perspective. And while you're stuck staring up, your competitors are steaming ahead.
Truck GPS tracking technology can show you the bigger picture. And, when you embrace it, you don’t just empower your drivers to make smarter decisions; you gain the perspective to become a better fleet manager.
In that spirit, we compared dozens of truck GPS tracking solutions and reviewed their features, usability and customer support.
Read on for our top six picks, or request quotes from top fleet management suppliers.
The top truck fleet management software
According to our research, the best truck fleet management solutions are:
- Best for large fleets: Verizon Connect
- Best for mixed fleets: Samsara
- Best for business analytics: Teletrac Navman
- Best for safety and compliance: Omnitracs
- Best budget option: Azuga
- Best for customer support: Quartix
Verizon Connect’s solution deals well with very large fleets, while Samsara's truck GPS tracking software caters to mixed fleets consisting of big rigs, vans, cars and just about any other kind of vehicle. Omnitracs assures excellent driver safety and compliance; Teletrac Navman's systems excel at reporting and analytics. Quartix's systems boast the lowest learning curve, and Azuga offers the best budget option.
Verizon Connect
Best for: large fleets
✔ Pros:
- Intuitive map interface
- Powerful route replay feature
- Intuitive live traffic reporting
X Cons:
- Disruptive software updates…
- …and occasional bugs
- Clogged customer support lines
There aren’t too many fleet management suppliers with the confidence or the capability to use their own truck GPS tracking system in 18,000 of their own vehicles. Verizon is one of them, and Verizon Connect is the system that’s helping make their fleet more productive, more efficient, and better at serving customers.
Want to test that last claim? Just time how long it takes Verizon to dispatch a technician to your house the next time your broadband breaks. With Verizon Connect’s sophisticated job scheduling algorithms working behind the scenes, we bet you won’t be without WiFi for long.
▶ Read more: Verizon Connect full review
Samsara
Best for: mixed fleets
✔ Pros:
- Intuitive map interface
- Powerful route replay feature
- Incisive live traffic reporting
X Cons:
- Disruptive software updates…
- …and occasional bugs
- Clogged customer support lines
If you’ve used Samsara for any length of time, you can’t help but be reminded of the control centre from Minority Report. For starters, the software’s “Helicopter View” syncs live vehicle location data with Google Maps satellite imagery to give you an ‘eye in the sky’ look at your trucks’ movements. You can access all vehicle telemetry data remotely and export it to other software for easy analysis. And, while the minimalistic desktop and mobile interface isn’t quite holographic, it’s still years ahead of its time.
But the best feature is the power take off monitoring, which lets you know when specialist equipment attached to your trucks is in use. This enables you to assist your drivers with any sticky situations, like the upended hydraulic dump truck from earlier in this article.
Short of solving crimes before they occur, there’s not much you can’t do with Samsara.
▶ Read more: Samsara full review
Teletrac Navman
Best for: business analytics
✔ Pros:
- Support staff know the service inside out
- Real-time location updates work without a hitch
- Fantastic value for money
X Cons:
- Reporting features could be even deeper
Teletrac Navman eats raw vehicle data for breakfast and serves you the insights for dinner. Onboard truck GPS tracking devices transmit live updates from your vehicles on everything from the harsh braking habits of individual drivers to fuel requirements for specific routes.
Back at fleet HQ, Teletrac Navman’s Director software converts all of this into easy-to-manage spreadsheets and reports. Miles/accident ratio, profit per mile, miles per gallon; the list of useful metrics goes on. It also integrates excellently with third party software like ProMiles and Alertdriving.
We love the clever ‘Find Nearest’ feature that lets you locate the drivers closest to a particular address. Touches like this help you to complete jobs quickly and keep your customers happy.
▶ Read more: Teletrac Navman full review
Omnitracs
Best for: safety and compliance
✔ Pros:
- Industry-leading ELD provider
- The MCP50 is the best ELD around
- Most drivers already familiar with the tech
X Cons:
- Inconsistent customer service
If you’ve been losing sleep over the recently-introduced ELD mandate, you’ll rest easy with Omnitracs. The truck GPS tracking system doubles up as an onboard Electronic Logging Device (ELD) – now a legal requirement for every commercial truck in America.
Your drivers will be happy too; Omnitracs automates the task of logging their hours-of-service (HOS). That means less time spent doing admin and more time to rest at a nice truck stop somewhere.
Azuga
Best for: budget buys
✔ Pros:
- Idle reporting encourages drivers to conserve fuel
- Very helpful customer support
- No upfront hardware costs, installation fees or termination charges
X Cons:
- Phone support only available from 9am to 5pm ET
- Some dead zones in mountainous areas
If someone told you about a killer truck GPS tracking solution costing just 85¢ per day per vehicle, you’d be skeptical. You’d also be wrong; Azuga beats several GPS trackers that cost twice as much – and no, that price isn’t a typo.
Fast installation (30 seconds or less) and friendly customer support staff make it easy to get started. There’s also a fantastic idle reporting feature that encourages drivers to conserve fuel. In short, Azuga perfectly balances price, performance and ease of use.
▶ Read more: Azuga full review
Quartix
Best for: customer service
✔ Pros:
- Amazing timesheet reports with start/finish times and routes taken
- Great set of driver behavior and speed reports
- Free hardware and many installation options to suit your needs
- Free mobile app
- Great customer service and support
X Cons:
- The map refreshes every 30 seconds, while the data in the tracking app refreshes every one to two minutes depending on the package you subscribe to
Quartix continues to amaze even after you’ve wrapped your head around the system’s low price and lengthy feature set. The software includes a familiar user interface (powered by Google Maps) that makes driver onboarding a cinch, driving style analysis and comprehensive reporting capabilities. There’s even a handy option to receive daily fleet reports straight to your email inbox.
If you do have any technical troubles with Quartix, you can drop them a line via email, live chat or over the phone (during business hours). They have 165 members of staff across the US and the UK, and a large dedicated customer service team, so there's always somebody available to answer any questions you may have.
▶ Read more: Quartix full review
Expert verdict
Once the province of wealthier companies with larger fleets, fleet management solutions are now within reach of much smaller fleets that might consist of a dozen vehicles or less.
And with fleets traveling longer distances, and with drivers being tasked with hauling perishable or sensitive cargo over ever-longer distances (often facing financial pressures from rising fuel and maintenance costs), fleet management tools have gone from a relative luxury to a vital necessity.
Buying a truck fleet management GPS tracking system is a big investment, so it’s well worth researching each solution on your shortlist by reading customer reviews and requesting a custom quote from each.
We'd suggest starting with those covered in this article, which we believe are the best truck fleet management software solutions: Verizon Connect, Samsara, Teletrac Navman, Omnitracs, Azuga, and Quartix.
If you'd like an easy way to compare quotes that have been tailored to you, simply tell us about your fleet by filling in our quick form, and you'll receive free, tailored quotes directly from trusted truck fleet management GPS solution providers.
Still got questions? Scan through the FAQs below!
“There is more credit and satisfaction in being a first-rate truck driver than a tenth-rate executive.” – B.C. Forbes, founder of Forbes Magazine
FAQs
I can’t find any truck fleet management solution prices online! Where can I find pricing information for different suppliers?
A ballpark figure for a typical truck fleet management solution is $19.95 – $29.95 per month. Most GPS tracking suppliers don’t list prices on their websites though, because they can vary massively according to your specific requirements.
When a supplier draws up a custom quote, they’ll account for things like the number and types of trucks in your fleet, and any special features you request.
Naturally, it’s impossible to cover all the possible pricing configurations in a single article. But what we can do is get you some custom quotes to compare, and help you more easily find the right solution for you. Simply tell us about your fleet and your requirements by completing our short form, and you'll receive quotes, tailored to your needs, directly from top providers.
I'm an independent trucker – do I still need to use truck fleet management software?
While we have concentrated mostly on fleet management for businesses that manage multiple vehicles and drivers at once, individual truckers who are not affiliated with a larger company can still benefit from using fleet management solutions – even if you and your truck are the full extent of the “fleet”.
After all, if you're operating on your own, you're probably already acutely aware of the impact that fuel costs, idle time, and inefficient routing can have on your small business. Using these apps and services can help you to cut costs and boost efficiency without cutting corners.
Yes, many solutions that enable a fleet of 500 trucks to save time and money can be scaled down to a single 18-wheeler, service truck, reefer or towtruck.
