KeepTruckin plans to offer free ELD to pre-mandate logbook users
Thepeople behind theKeepTruckin logging software platformfor Androidand iOSmobile devices are committed, says CEO Shoaib Makani, to giving away associated hardware to satisfy the electronic logging device mandate free of charge to all users. That is, should the mandate take effect in future.
Current plans from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrationshow a track suggesting a compliance date as early as 2016.
How will the company do it? Were definitely going to have the hardware, currently in development to connect to trucks electronic control modules, a requirement of the ELD mandate, says Makani. And the model will be to give it away and generate value on top. Armed with a subscriber base, KeepTruckin will be able to offer fleet and owner-operator customers dynamic products on top of the current free service premium software add-ons to its free web-based dispatching platform like IFTA reporting, maintenance monitoring, sophisticated load planning and further dispatching tools, as well as factoring services in order to stay profitable.
With connections to truck operating data via ELD hardware, further offerings could extend intousage-based insurance Makani points a model in what the MetroMile company is doing in the auto space today. Likewise, If we have the digital connection with drivers such that we know where they are and if they are loaded or not, we can deliver the best load board service that has ever existed, he says.
[related-post id="70407"/]Theres a catch to the free-ELD offer, if you can call it a catch: users will have to at least be using the KeepTruckin electronic logbook(available for Androidand iOS) in advance of the mandate to get the ELD hardware for free, Makani says. This advances our current goal as well more users of the free logbook and dispatch software in the short term. Both have grown primarily by word of mouth, Makani says, sinceOverdrivefirst reported on it,to 15,000 active driver users today.
That product, including the dispatching functionality, will remain free, Makani says, regardless of what happens with the mandate. Well be adding additional features to the software-only product as well, but the core product will remain as it is, and remain free.
KeepTruckins technology today, as previously reported, is seeded by lead investor Google Ventures, a fact Makani says skeptics might do well to remember. Drivers and fleets can be sure that we will be able to deliver on our promise of a free ELD, he says. We have an incredible engineering team and are financially backed by the pioneer of freemium technology products. You know who.
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KeepTruckin plans to offer free ELD to pre-mandate logbook users