7 GPS Trackers for Trucking, Compared on Compliance, Term and Published Cost

Trucking is the one segment where tracking is not optional. Hours of service, driver logs and IFTA turn a telematics device into a compliance obligation, and that changes the buying dynamic completely: the vendor knows you cannot walk away. The fleet management market is projected to grow from USD 30.1 billion in 2026 to USD 122.3 billion by 2035, and compliance is a large part of why.

It also produces the least transparent pricing in the category. We checked seven options on 18 September 2026. The compliance platforms publish nothing, and the devices that publish everything cannot do compliance at all.

So the practical problem for a carrier is that the shortlist splits in two before it starts, and most of the useful comparison happens inside the half where no numbers exist.

 

Read from each vendor’s own pages on 18 September 2026. Reported terms are third-party customer reports, not vendor statements. Disclosure: Logistimatics is a brand we work with, listed on published specification alongside rivals we have linked.

The Split That Decides Everything

Options one to five do compliance and publish no prices. Options six and seven publish everything and do no compliance. There is no product that does both and tells you what it costs, and pretending otherwise is how carriers end up buying twice.

The working pattern in most fleets is therefore two purchases rather than one. A compliance platform in the cab, bought through a sales process, and cheap published-price devices on the trailers and as concealed recovery units, bought online.

1. Motive

Motive is the most trucking-native of the platforms. Hours of service, IFTA and driver logs sit at the centre rather than beside it, and the hardware line covers vehicle gateway, AI Omnicam, smart dashcam, asset gateway mini, environmental and door sensors, engine immobiliser and driver ID reader, with a five-year warranty claim.

Its lead form asks fleet size in bands from one to nine up to a thousand plus, which tells you pricing is segmented even though none is published. The twelve-month term commonly reported is the shortest among the majors and is frequently the reason it wins.

2. Geotab

Geotab puts full HOS and ELD with tachograph support in its GO Plan tier, alongside AI safety scoring, predictive maintenance, EV analytics and advanced routing, with GO Core as the cheaper location-and-maintenance tier below it.

It is also the only platform here that makes a clear hardware commitment: no upfront device cost, no installation fee, hardware in the subscription, and tier upgrades with no hardware swap. For a carrier fitting fifty tractors, that predictability is worth asking about early.

3. Samsara

Samsara carries compliance inside its Telematics Premier and Enterprise packages, with the safety layer sold separately in Safety Premier and Enterprise. For a carrier whose insurance renewal is the reason this project exists, that safety depth is the product.

The reported three-year term is the longest in the category and the single largest risk for a fleet that may shrink. Reported per-vehicle rates sit near $27 to $33 a month with hardware reported between $99 and $548.

4. Verizon Connect

Verizon Connect covers compliance as a module category and is stronger on the trailer half than any platform here. Its battery EAT-B is quoted at up to thirteen years of location updates under stated optimal conditions, and its asset list runs to reefers, dry vans, flatbeds and containers explicitly.

It is also the only vendor that states professional installation costs extra, without naming a figure, and the only one offering hardware-free OEM activation on compatible vehicles.

5. Teletrac Navman

Teletrac Navman separates fleet management from equipment management as two product lines, covering ELD, DVIR, IFTA and video telematics on one side and GPS asset tracking, utilisation and maintenance on the other. For an operation where the trailer pool is managed by a different team than the tractors, that split maps to the org chart.

Its Get Pricing button leads to a configurator promising a solution in thirty seconds, which ends in a quote rather than a price.

6 and 7. The Devices You Can Just Buy

For trailers, Logistimatics publishes $54.99 with up to five years at one fix a day, IP67, rated to minus 30 Celsius, with volume pricing to $44.99 a unit at twenty and no contract. That is a complete, costable trailer programme that needs no sales conversation.

For recovery, LandAirSea at $29.95 with a published plan ladder from $19.95 to $49.95 is the standard concealed second unit. Neither does compliance, and neither pretends to.

Buy the Compliance Platform on Term, the Trailers on Price

Treat these as two separate purchases with two separate criteria. On the cab side, the questions are compliance depth, contract term and what happens to committed units when trucks are parked, because those decide the money and none of them is on a website. On the trailer side, the questions are battery figure at a stated duty cycle and published unit price, both of which you can compare this afternoon.

Splitting the decision that way stops a three-year per-vehicle agreement from quietly swallowing the trailer pool at a vehicle rate. Our comparison of Motive against Verizon Connect covers the compliance half in detail, and ten trailer and container trackers covers the other.