FleetUp Review

Why FleetUp Is Best for Managing Assets

Some GPS fleet tracking solutions focus on vehicles, whereas FleetUp recognizes that those vehicles are often used to move the business’ real priority — cargo. To that end, the company offers a singular interface for tracking containers, drivers and their vehicles. Managers can monitor everything from cargo temperature to cables being cut, on a feed that updates in 10-second intervals. It supports this granular monitoring with a variety of hardwired, plug-and-play and solar-powered trackers.

When deliveries need to be tracked, FleetUp supports client tracking links, which can remain active for up to a year, providing live estimated time of arrival (ETA) updates. Being able to remotely monitor assets in this way enables managers to track decoupling and deliveries as well as the vehicles that brought those assets. Geofencing is standard, and it’s possible to avoid issuing high-value cargo to a driver whose route will include stops in high-risk areas.

Usability

GPS fleet tracking dashboards tend to be homogenous, and there’s nothing revolutionary about FleetUp’s interface. With that said, we like the straightforward tabbing along the top, divided into clear sections, such as Compliance, Geofence and Chat. Radio buttons along the left-hand side enable you to break down mapping or content into subcategories and the Google-powered maps are as clear as we’ve come to expect.

On the downside, FleetUp offers four fleet management software plans, which in our opinion is three too many. Standard covers basic GPS tracking, geofencing and reporting. 

Compliance adds electronic logging device (ELD) and hours of service (HOS) monitoring. Advanced unlocks fuel analysis and engine diagnostics. Professional brings everything together into one platform. Since most clients will want or need the Professional solution, creating tiered offerings seems like a method of upselling. The opacity of FleetUp’s pricing only makes matters more complex.

Features

Asset monitoring

Whatever you need, FleetUp has hardware to cater to it. Need a solar-powered tracker for a pallet? They’ve got you covered. Do you want to monitor the temperature and humidity in a trailer? Not a problem. Need to know where your assets are in real time? OK, the refresh time is 10 seconds, but that’s still better than most competitor products — only Samsara and Force by Mojio offer superior refresh rates. In the unusual scenario that less frequent updates are preferred, you can adjust them up to 60 seconds, although NexTraq beats this by offering refresh rates as far apart as 15 minutes.

Asset pairing is also offered alongside the usual customizable geofencing criteria, such as entry/exit points and duration. It’s even possible to assign individual geofence areas names within the system.

Easy-to-use dashcam

The dual-facing dashcam is a compact device, offering a number of welcome features including live footage to fleet managers. Real-time driver coaching is available through a voice assistant while recorded and time-stamped events are saved locally — ideal for remote areas — and uploaded to the cloud once a signal is available. Any excessive behaviors or hard driving will be recorded, including harsh cornering and braking. Monitoring hard driving can help identify opportunities to coach drivers, improve safety and reduce maintenance costs.

Annotation labeling splits events into three categories of risk — high, medium and low — with a separate option for admins to flag them as “false.” Managers can also determine whether they want to know about low-risk events, such as a vehicle taking a speed bump a bit too quickly or stick to being told about more critical events. This unusual feature is extremely beneficial if you’ve got a large fleet to supervise and don’t want to be bothered by every instance of possible driver inattention or imperfect driving.

Vehicular health management

Fleet management systems are increasingly holistic, covering vehicle health as well as driver activities. FleetUp allows admins and managers to create centralized maintenance schedules, which enable remote health alerts of engines to identify diagnostic issues or faulty components. These alerts are then passed on as live notifications via the desktop interface, mobile app or short message service (SMS). They can also be included in daily bulletins.

Companies are increasingly keen to cut down on fuel costs wherever possible. Research by Verizon Connect has indicated that a single heavy truck could waste $8,730 in fuel each year through excessive idling. Fortunately, FleetUp developed a patented fuel waste algorithm. It’s based on a percentage score calculated from factors, including idle time and instances of harsh braking. Anything that helps fleets to reduce operating costs is to be applauded, especially in the current economic climate.

Customizable reporting

FleetUp offers 20 separate categories of reporting from assets to idling and from odometer to trip data. Data is stored for up to six months by default, though a kind word with your FleetUp rep should unearth older data as well. Reports can be exported as PDF or XLS files or emailed to nominated individuals. Similarly, 30 separate vehicular alerts can be customized and tailored to specific scenarios (for example, a cable being cut or batteries running low) and sent in live or daily updates via the desktop interface, a mobile app or via SMS.

The FleetUp platform also offers e-maintenance in a separate tab on the desktop interface. A dozen elements are presently covered, including idling or OBD II devices being unplugged. Each of these can be customized — you might not want to be notified that a vehicle is momentarily idling in heavy traffic, for instance. The presence of multiple temperature and humidity sensors will reassure fleet managers with fragile or spoilable cargo while break-in and tampering alerts can be issued within 10 seconds of an event occurring.

FleetUp Cost

FleetUp doesn’t disclose pricing data. We were unable to obtain figures and other review platforms have also drawn a blank. We have therefore awarded FleetUp a low score in this category on the basis that some prospective clients won’t be happy contacting a sales rep and negotiating a package without any indication of whether they’re getting a competitive deal.

This approach is regrettably commonplace across much of the GPS fleet tracking industry, though some companies are open about the cost of individual assets. Others have given us ballpark pricing on request, but we certainly can’t recommend FleetUp’s Professional software interface over its three less comprehensive siblings without knowing how much extra it costs.

FleetUp Setup

FleetUp claims to service fleets of all sizes — mostly with less than 10 vehicles, though it can support enterprise fleets with thousands of assets. Because these are all tracked through a single-view dashboard, setup times are reduced, and FleetUp has tried to make the numerous tabs required for a single-view setup as obvious as possible. Even so, you’ll want to spend some time under the hood experimenting with the less obvious menus like Sharing and Job. It’s an intuitive interface, but a busy one. 

If you want to simplify things a bit you can disable alerts from appearing at the bottom of the screen; they’ll still be listed under the Alerts menu button up top so you can check in on them manually. Similarly, Action Steps offer greater insights into modifying driver behavior, but only if you click the appropriate drop-down button.

The Google-powered mapping is as reliable as you’d expect, with the usual satellite and traffic overlays. New for 2023 is a map of stops made by each vehicle while FleetUp has also recently introduced the ability to see the top five drivers alongside a Coaching button for less impressive performers.

FleetUp Customer Service

It’s always reassuring when a company places a telephone number prominently on its website and FleetUp does. You can also get in touch through a dedicated support@ email address or by completing a seven-field form. There is a chatbot, but oddly, it only accepts inquiries between 5 a.m. and 2 p.m. Pacific time.

The FleetUp website hosts a modest number of videos, a searchable database of industry-wide white papers and corporate blogs, detailed product datasheets and a frequently asked questions (FAQs) section. Compliance resources, such as Department of Transportation reference cards and cargo security guides, are also located in the Contact section of the website.

FleetUp Drawbacks

The biggest drawback to FleetUp is the company’s opaque pricing policy. This is something rivals also struggle with — most notably Verizon Connect, which briefly published pricing online and then withdrew it again. FleetUp doesn’t even stipulate how long its minimum contract period is, and we were unable to find this information anywhere else.

Although FleetUp provides reasonably detailed mapping, it lacks the power and sewage line data found on Verizon Connect, who also provides height and weight restriction data for many minor roads. The third-party integrations offered by competitors like Samsara are absent, although FleetUp does offer an open application programming interface. While there are driver scorecards, there are no rewards or incentives for drivers to improve flagged behaviors. This is something rival platform Azuga excels at.

Methodology

Selecting a GPS fleet tracking system can be tough, so we did some of the heavy lifting for you. We spent countless hours researching and analyzing GPS fleet tracking systems to identify the top solutions on the market. We looked at hardware, features, pricing and contracts, usability, refresh times and customer support, and we even got hands-on experience with demos and product videos when possible.

When searching for the best GPS fleet tracking system for small businesses specifically, we focused on how comprehensive each service’s features are, how easy the product is to set up and use and whether the product can easily scale. In FleetUp’s case, we were given an extensive guided tour of the desktop platform and talked through functionalities like customizable alerts and driver messaging.

Overall Value

We recommend FleetUp for …

• Companies that place as much value on assets and trailers as they do on vehicles.
• Fleet managers keen to have a single-view interface allied to a dedicated Admin app.
• Firms that want their drivers to have a comprehensive mobile app to support their work.
• Businesses engaged in cross-border travel or those with an international footprint.

We don’t recommend FleetUp for …

• Managers who want transparent pricing and contract period information.
• Companies that want to incentivize improvements in driver behavior.

Read related: Learn more about how to manage fleet safety and compliance in our best practice guide.