Motive Review

Motive legitimacy and licensing

Yes. Motive Technologies, Inc., the company formerly called KeepTruckin, was founded in 2013 and is based in San Francisco. Its ELD is on the FMCSA’s list of registered electronic logging devices, and the company says it has nearly 100,000 customers and more than 1 million drivers on its platform.

Motive filed to go public in December 2025. Its S-1 showed 2024 revenue of $370 million and a net loss of $153 million. On September 10, 2026 it withdrew the IPO after raising more than $1.3 billion from General Catalyst, and it says annual recurring revenue has passed $600 million. It remains a private company.

Legitimate does not mean problem free. The BBB rates Motive a C with 195 complaints in three years, and its Trustpilot score is 1.8 out of 5 even though most of its 2,411 reviews are five star, because recent reviews focus on billing and renewals.

How much Motive costs

Motive does not publish prices. Its pricing page is a quote form, and its S-1 says subscriptions are priced per asset, per product, with the hardware bundled into the subscription. That means an ELD only truck, a truck with an AI Dashcam and an unpowered trailer tracker can each carry a different monthly rate.

The contract matters as much as the rate. Motive’s S-1 says contracts typically span three years, are generally noncancellable and renew for one year at a time. Its Terms of Service say a subscription renews for 12 months unless you give at least 30 days’ written notice, and that if you cancel early you owe the balance for the rest of the term. Card payments carry a fee of up to 2.99%.

Ask for these in writing before you sign:

• The monthly price for each product and each vehicle or asset type
• The start and end date of the term and the exact non-renewal deadline
• Any renewal price increase
• Hardware replacement and return fees

What you get: ELD, dash cams and fleet tools

Motive sells six product lines: Driver Safety, Fleet Management, Equipment Monitoring, Spend Management, Workforce Management and AI Vision. For most trucking customers that means:

• ELD and hours of service: the Vehicle Gateway plugs into the truck and drivers log hours and inspections in the Motive Driver app.
• AI Dashcam: road and driver facing video that flags events like phone use and close following for coaching.
• GPS and IFTA: live location, trip history and fuel tax reporting.
• Maintenance, reefer and asset tracking: engine fault alerts, trailer and equipment tracking.
• Motive Card: a fleet fuel and spend card.

Drivers rate the app well: 4.4 on the App Store from 11,641 ratings and 4.5 on Google Play from about 35,300 reviews. If your drivers live in the ELD app all day, that counts for a lot.

Motive complaints and how to avoid problems

Across the BBB and Trustpilot, the most common complaints are automatic renewals, charges after a cancellation request, refunds that never arrive, persistent sales calls and slow support once the contract is signed. Some reviewers also report bugs after app updates and dash cam events flagged in error.

• Put the non-renewal deadline (30 days before the term ends) in your calendar the day you sign.
• Send cancellation and non-renewal notices in writing to [email protected] and keep the reply.
• Dispute a wrong invoice in writing within 60 days, as Motive’s terms require.
• Return trial hardware within 30 days of the trial ending to avoid replacement fees.
• If you pay through a third party lender, know that the lender’s payments are not refundable by Motive.

Lawsuits and disputes

Samsara sued Motive over patents, its dash cam comparison ads and access to Samsara’s platform. The U.S. International Trade Commission found that Motive did not infringe Samsara’s patents and closed its investigation in February 2026. Separately, an arbitrator awarded Samsara $30.3 million over Motive’s marketing, finding claims that Motive’s AI Dashcam outperformed Samsara’s literally false. Other claims between the two companies were still in court as of March 2026.

Motive’s S-1 also disclosed a $4.2 million settlement of a class action under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, recorded in 2024, and a pending Illinois biometric privacy (BIPA) suit over in-cab cameras that was on hold as of August 2025. In August 2026, Motive limited and then restored the load board company Highway’s access to carrier ELD data after a pricing dispute.

None of this affects whether the ELD is legal to use, but it is a reason to judge dash cam accuracy yourself in a pilot rather than rely on vendor comparison studies.

ELD rules and who can skip an ELD

Under 49 CFR 395.8, carriers that must keep records of duty status have to use an ELD unless a driver qualifies for an exception. A driver may keep paper logs instead if they need logs on no more than 8 days in any 30 day period, drive in certain driveaway and towaway operations, or drive a vehicle manufactured before model year 2000.

If you do need an ELD, check that any device you buy, from Motive or anyone else, is on the FMCSA registered ELD list and not on its revoked list. Motive’s ELD is registered as of October 2026.

Who should pick something else

If you run a handful of vehicles and want to see prices before talking to sales, a vendor that posts rates, such as Linxup at $30 per vehicle a month for ELD, is simpler to budget. If you want a similar all in one platform with a stronger complaint record, Samsara holds an A+ BBB rating. And if your drivers qualify for an FMCSA exception, paper logs cost nothing.