Motive Review

Why we chose Motive as best for driver accountability

We love that Motive has built-in driver accountability and safety features throughout its platform. Its CSA Scores feature for compliance, safety, and accountability, for example, meets Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) specifications. Motive harnesses FMCSA data to help its AI-powered cameras and sensors identify risky driver behaviors. FMCSA data also helps the system improve a fleet’s electronic logging device (ELD) compliance, which is crucial if your business is audited.

Motive’s dashcam footage is reviewed by safety representatives, who provide additional context to help fleet managers fully understand safety and accountability issues. Every video is reviewed before being sent to a fleet manager, which means no false positives are sent.

Combined with ongoing driver performance scoring, businesses that use Motive’s fleet-management services can ensure drivers operate vehicles as expected and guide them to training when necessary.

Driver and vehicle safety is a significant focus for GPS fleet-tracking services today. Our Force review, for example, details the vendor’s superb driver-accountability features. Motive’s execution is superior, however, making it our choice for businesses seeking a system that prioritizes driver accountability.

Ease of use

Motive’s monochromatic interface is attractive and functional. Nearly all screen space is devoted to displaying fleet, driver, and vehicle information. A narrow navigation menu down the left of the screen contains icons that lead to different parts of the program. When you select an option, the top sixth of the information pane tells you which section you’re in and presents related choices. You can use the additional buttons in Fleet View to see your whole fleet or sub-fleets you’ve designated previously.

Here’s an overview of the system’s main sections:

• Fleet View: Fleet View offers a live look at your vehicles with up-to-the-minute traffic information from Google. We like how this view integrates weather information. You can, for example, advise construction fleets not to travel to a particular site when rain is expected.
• Safety: You can access safety scores for all drivers and your performance leaderboard to see which drivers achieve the highest and lowest scores. Managers can also see a list of dashcam updates and requested video notifications from the past 24 hours. We really like the coaching section, which allows managers to drill down into individual driver safety issues and events for training purposes. 
• Compliance: This section provides a list of your most pressing compliance risks at a glance, which vehicle errors occur most on driver inspections, and an action center for managers to follow up on the latest safety and compliance violations. There is also a detailed overview of compliance issues affecting a company fleet over adjustable time periods, including vehicle logs, trip data, and driver inspection results.
• Fuel:  We like how you can access historic fuel data from each vehicle to get an overview of the fleet’s fuel efficiency and suggestions for how to improve each vehicle. 
• Cards: Motive has partnered with Mastercard to infuse its solution with a unique credit card and spend-management tool. You can view and download transaction histories from this hub, as well as change the billing cycle. This function helps manage driver and vehicle spending and makes credit card fraud easier to spot (if, for example, the credit card was used at a location where the vehicle was not). We like that you can download financial records in CSV or Excel and upload them to the best accounting software platforms, such as QuickBooks and Xero. To order new cards, go through the Settings options.
• Maintenance: From this tab, you can access service notes and histories for fleet vehicles and schedule periodic vehicle maintenance. Managers can also set up customized inspection forms for each fleet vehicle, specifying which parts of the vehicle they want drivers to check during their inspections.
• Dispatch: Click into the Dispatch section to organize on-time delivery jobs for drivers. Managers can also monitor driver progress and mark dispatch jobs “started” and “completed” on behalf of their drivers (more on this later in the article).  
• Messages: Managers and drivers can stay in touch with each other via two-way communication from the dashboard with the driver communicating via the Motive app.
• Documentation: View, share, archive, and upload a wide range of driver- and vehicle-related documents. We were impressed by just how easy this section is to navigate so you can find what you need quickly.
• Load board: Load boards allow freight operators to sell space in their vehicles on inbound and outbound trips. This clever feature, built directly into the Motive platform, allows operators to generate more revenue on journey legs.
• Reports: See reports on driver activity, fuel purchases, maintenance history, and more from this tab.
• Marketplace: Access third-party apps and integrations from here (more on this later in the review).
• Earn cash: Register and become an affiliate for Motive to earn money every time someone you introduce signs up.

Toward the bottom of the screen, you can access notifications, help, and account details.

The Motive dashboard for fleet managers and administrators is accessible on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. Source: Motive NEW IMAGE

Features

Here’s a look at the features we found most notable.

DRIVE driver scoring

Nearly all GPS fleet-tracking platforms incorporate driver scores. Like other platforms, Motive awards drivers a score out of 100 based on their driving behavior. Motive’s DRIVE, however, is a superior scoring tool. It’s a unique predictive risk model that allows a fair and far-reaching comparison of driver behavior. Drivers are measured against their colleagues, as well as the hundreds of thousands of other drivers connected to the vendor’s database.

The system marks driver behavior and performance as very poor, poor, fair, good, or excellent. It excels at identifying high-risk behaviors specific to drivers’ typical routes. 

DRIVE draws on the following five factors when calculating a driver’s score:

• Driver behavior: Driver behavior includes fatigue, compliance violations, hard braking, hard acceleration, and speeding.
• Road conditions: The system accounts for obstacles, terrain, and the road grade.
• Video evidence: The system looks at AI interpretations of footage from forward and dual-facing cameras. The road-facing camera looks for instances of close following (tailgating), unsafe lane changes, and near misses.
• Vehicle aspects: Vehicle aspects include performance telematics figures, maintenance records, and vehicle age, model, and make.
• Environmental factors: Environmental factors include visibility, time of day, traffic conditions, weather, and road surface conditions.

We appreciate how DRIVE recognizes that drivers making journeys on congested roads have a harder time than drivers on quieter, more remote freeways. It ensures no one is unfairly penalized due to the driving behaviors their routes may require. We like that Motive helps hold drivers accountable for poor vehicle operation while acknowledging unique driving circumstances and factoring context into safety scores.

DRIVE assesses a safety score over a 16-week rolling period. It updates every Monday and considers the previous 106 days’ input. We love that it shines a greater spotlight on driver behavior and increases the chance of drivers receiving training to improve safety. Motive even asserts that its system is five times better at predicting accidents than other safety scoring methods.

The DRIVE risk score interface on the Motive platform shows how your fleet performs. Source: Motive

AI cameras with human backup

We were impressed by Motive’s top-notch AI cameras and its team of 400 safety experts who ensure every bit of footage uploaded to the platform is examined. They can provide context for fleet managers and help them better understand what they’re seeing.

• High-definition (HD) dashcam: Motive’s HD dashcam (up to 1440p) is built with AI that detects high-risk activity on the road and in the cab. Its powerful batteries can record even if the vehicle loses power or the engine is switched off. We were impressed with how managers can retrieve footage from the previous nine days with up to 60 minutes of HD footage per request.
• Human video review: When Motive’s AI-powered dashcam detects a particular driver behavior or event, it sends footage to your business’s dashboard and Motive’s in-house team of over 400 safety experts. The Motive AI system was trained on over 10,000 collisions, but safety experts send only 1 percent of videos to managers for review. That eliminates false positives, ensuring fleet managers focus solely on the most significant incidents requiring attention. On average, it takes less than 10 minutes for a Motive employee to assess a video.
• AI Omnicam: We were also very impressed by the AI Omnicam, a feature we haven’t seen with any other system. The tool gives managers a more complete view, providing video coverage of a vehicle’s side, rear, passenger side, and any particular cargo you’re monitoring. It gives a much fuller view of driver behaviors and provides better protection in case of cargo theft, cargo loading disputes, and false crash claims involving a vehicle’s rear or side.

In a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and Strategy Analytics study, Motive’s AI dashcam outperformed competitors’ AI dashcams by a wide margin. That’s impressive enough, but backing up machine insight with individual human scrutiny of each incident makes Motive a leader in the field.

One newer aspect of Motive’s service that we love is its partnership with RapidSOS, a company that monitors data from GPS devices and dashcams. 

Motive’s AI can recognize 99 percent of serious accidents. If it sees one, it will directly connect to one of 21,000 local emergency service agencies, providing them with the vehicle’s location, when the accident happened, and the vehicle model, make, and license plate. 

Motive employees tag each item of dashcam footage with infraction details and additional context. Source: Motive

Driver training

As part of the driver-training program and Motive package, managers can send videos of particular infractions to the relevant drivers’ phones. If there is a more serious breach, Motive automatically sends a video if the AI deems it to be a “coachable event.” 

We like how managers have the option to turn off the messages if they prefer face-to-face coaching. In that case, they can sit down with your driver and highlight the particular videos of concern on Motive’s platform. Both solutions provide the educational material you need to improve driver behavior.

Managers can add notes to videos to record a driver’s version of events and their own observations of a driver’s reaction to an incident. They can then mark the incident as “coached.” We love this way of holding drivers accountable.

Motive’s AI cams warn drivers in real time of potential safety incidents, such as drowsiness or the potential for a rear-end collision. In addition to a voice warning, their managers also receive an alert about each incident so they can monitor their performance and use it in a later training session, if required.

As with many other GPS fleet solutions, you can also use Motive to incentivize drivers to improve their vehicle operations by awarding them points based on whether they avoid dangerous driving behaviors such as hard braking, accelerating quickly, and speeding. Drivers can see each other’s scores and compete for gift cards and other prizes to raise driving standards across the fleet.

Drivers are warned in real time of signs of drowsiness and the potential for a rear-end collision. A note is also sent back to their manager alerting them of the incident . Source: Motive 

Fleet manager reporting and oversight

Motive excels in the following essential fleet-management elements that can help you reduce fleet idle time: 

• Custom reports: Fleet managers can run custom reports on Motive to analyze fuel use, vehicle maintenance, driver behavior, inspections, maintenance, safety and vehicle utilization, compliance issues, and more.
• Fuel efficiency: Fuel efficiency is a critical aspect of fleet management. Motive’s Fuel Hub helps managers track fuel consumption by vehicle and driver. It pinpoints behaviors such as idling and hard cornering, which can negatively affect miles-per-gallon metrics, and identifies the drivers and vehicles in greatest need of improvement. We like that fuel performance is benchmarked against the 700,000-plus vehicles that Motive monitors. 
• Fuel card: The Motive Fuel card is a helpful tool for fleet managers. It provides fuel and maintenance discounts and centralizes all fuel spend data, allowing granular monitoring by cardholder, amount, purchase date, vehicle type, and more. Its integration with the platform’s AI elements delivers additional insights to help managers save money on fuel. We like how you can require drivers to unlock the card for each fuel transaction to reduce fuel fraud.

Other notable fleet manager features include the following:

• Driver management: Track compliance with hours-of-service (HoS) rules, ELD requirements, and safety alerts.
• Dispatch management: Gain real-time visibility of trip progress and driver location. You can also message drivers in real time from the dashboard. We like that Motive is automating many management features, such as outcome confirmations — successful deliveries, for example ― and job assignments.
• Asset tracking: You can monitor the movement of assets in real time, track asset usage patterns, and identify dormant assets.
• Group messages: You can send group messages to your fleet and subfleets via the dashboard.

Motive’s fuel analysis report is designed to help you identify which drivers are costing you fuel with excessive idling time. Source: Motive

Intelligent routing

Fleet managers see the real-time location of each driver, vehicle, trailer, and piece of equipment on their Motive dashboard. The system considers driver status, vehicle health, and HoS considerations automatically when determining optimal routes.

The platform’s intelligent routing is advanced. It can account for distance between stops, traffic congestion, customer time windows, and more when choosing how to structure a driver’s day. It also considers traffic and the hours remaining in a driver’s shift when assigning drivers and routes. 

We like that the system can overlay weather and traffic information across routes to help fleet managers make informed decisions and ensure as many successful deliveries as possible. The system’s ability to choose an appropriate vehicle for the types of roads on a given journey is also impressive.

Fleet maintenance tools

The more vehicles you have off the road due to maintenance problems, the more pressure your drivers are under to meet demand and client expectations. Fortunately, with Motive, Fleet managers receive immediate alerts when a diagnostic code issue is flagged with a vehicle. Minor issues today may become more significant issues in the future, so the vendor has built preventive fleet-maintenance tools into its platform.

• Inspection records: When managing fleet health, updating and retrieving complete inspection records for vehicles and assets is easy via the Reports tab on the main menu.
• Maintenance alerts: The Maintenance tab allows you to send app alerts to other fleet users and drivers to remind them there is either an upcoming or overdue maintenance check. Fleet managers can also set regular maintenance events by miles, days, or engine hours. 
• Inspection mode: Managers can program periodic (including daily) vehicle inspections into the Motive driver app’s Inspection mode. The driver can then check off various maintenance tasks and report potential emerging issues that may affect vehicle performance. We love how the system also makes it easier for drivers to meet HoS requirements and complete other compliance-related documentation to help extend the life of the vehicles and assets they’re responsible for.
• Early detection and reporting: Real-time fault code alerts help managers spot problems before they become problems that take vehicles off the road. They can customize inspection forms by vehicle type, identify issues that increase fuel use, and generate reports to prevent costly oversights.

Motive’s fleet-maintenance tools can pinpoint fleet health issues. Source: Motive

Third-party integrations

The Motive platform is packed with built-in functionality, but we appreciate that the provider has opened its software for third parties to develop useful integrations. Motive offers around 240 integration options, making it one of the largest app marketplaces of all the GPS fleet-management services we reviewed.

There are 10 safety-related integrations, including Nirvana Safety, which helps managers gain more insights into driving behaviors and pinpoint drivers who present the greatest risks. Apps to help you improve compliance, fuel consumption, and fleet maintenance are also available. 

You can also choose from 31 insurance-related apps, which can help lower your commercial auto insurance premiums when you allow the insurers to see driver data. 

Mobile apps

Like many of its peers, Motive offers two mobile apps: one for drivers and one for managers. 

The manager app helps fleet managers execute many of the desktop dashboard’s functions, including the following: 

• Monitoring vehicles, assets, and driver locations with real-time GPS tracking
• Customizing the map view
• Accessing detailed driver, asset, and vehicle information
• Managing maintenance schedules 
• Monitoring vehicle health telematics data
• Ensuring drivers are ELD-compliant 
• Viewing real-time dashcam images 
• Directly communicating with drivers through calls, emails, or texts
• Contacting Motive’s 24/7 customer-support team

The driver app is also superbly executed and can help drivers with the following:

• Performing vehicle inspections and roadside vehicle checks
• Handling hours-of-service documentation 
• Reducing driver paperwork
• Confirming delivery times 
• Communicating with fleet managers

Both apps are available for iOS and Android devices.

Pricing

Motive’s electronic logging device costs $150, and GPS tracking prices start at $25 a month. The price you pay per unit may vary according to the size of your fleet and the types of vehicles.

We were disappointed that Motive doesn’t offer a free trial. It will, however, provide free demos. Its minimum contract length is 12 months, so it’s worth trying the demo first to see if this is the right platform for you.

Implementation and onboarding

Motive’s implementation is straightforward. Plug-and-play device connectivity via OBD-II slots means setting up each vehicle with the required equipment shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. If drivers need help downloading and using Motive’s driver app or performing various functions, they can access easy-to-read guides on Motive’s website. 

We like how scalability is built into the system. You can add new drivers quickly by creating a profile for them in the admin area of the software. To add a new vehicle, go to the Vehicles section of the dashboard, enter its details, and assign it its own Vehicle Gateway (the brand name of Motive’s in-vehicle tracking hardware device). Install the hardware in the vehicle and it pairs with the dashboard automatically when activated in an area with cellular coverage.

Customer support

Motive provides 24/7 customer service assistance. You can phone the vendor, email the company, send a message via the website, or use Motive’s online chatbot. We also like that there are direct links within the dashboard (both on the desktop and in the mobile apps) to all customer contact channels.

Motive provides an extensive online knowledge base with specific help guides for drivers, fleet managers, administrators, and installers. In addition to instructions on fitting and using the hardware, there are guides on compliance, dispatch, fleet safety, telematics, maintenance features, application programming, interface connectivity, and more.

Limitations

• No free trial: We were disappointed that Motive doesn’t give businesses a chance to test its system on a handful of vehicles to ensure it’s the right solution. Consider reading our review of ClearPathGPS and our GPS Trackit review to learn about services with 30-day rolling contracts that make evaluating a fleet-tracking system easy and convenient.
• No Better Business Bureau accreditation: Motive is an outstanding resource for driver accountability and is impressive in several other areas, but it’s not accredited by the BBB. That may not be a deal-breaker for all businesses, though, and as you’ll see in our review of Azuga, it’s not the only GPS fleet provider to be unaccredited.

Methodology

During our investigation of the best GPS fleet-management services, we evaluated various providers on their equipment, platform features, scalability, usability, refresh rates, and integrations. We also factored in pricing and customer service quality. After our reviews, it was clear Motive was the best choice for businesses prioritizing driver-accountability tools. Its DRIVE scoring, human-reviewed dashcam videos, and driver training options truly stand out.

Bottom line

We recommend Motive for…

• Businesses focused on driver accountability for safety and financial reasons.
• Companies that want access to always-available customer support.
• Organizations that need a fleet-management system that works out of the box.

We don’t recommend Motive for…

• Companies that need easy-to-find pricing.
• Businesses that want to test the software before signing a contract.