The fleet management software company KeepTruckin Inc. is reinventing itself as an “internet of things”-based automation company and rebranding itself as “Motive” to better reflect the fact it’s no longer focused solely on the trucking industry.

The company began life with its smartphone apps for truck drivers and electronic logging devices that track their compliance with government limits on driving time. Those devices connect to the smartphone app in order to create a digital log of a driver’s driving hours, which cannot be altered.

However, in more recent years it has expanded into fleet management software, giving the folks at headquarters a way to track fleets of trucks in real time. Its tools rely on artificial intelligence to optimize the best routes for drivers, and can even automate tasks such as fuel tax reporting. It also sells a smart dashcam that comes with AI-based safety features that can identify behavior associated with critical events, helping educate drivers and fleet managers on how these events can be prevented.

The company has won a lot of fans, notably raising $149 million via a Series D round of funding back in 2019.

Motive said today that although its first customers were almost exclusively trucking firms, that’s no longer the case. These days it says its fleet management software is used in all manner of industries across the physical economy, including agricultural firms, manufacturing, construction, field services and logistics.

In addition to the rebrand, Motive said it’s repackaging its technology with the launch of its Automated Operations Platform. The new offering is said to combine IoT hardware with AI-powered applications to automate vehicle management and equipment tracking, driver safety, compliance, maintenance, spend management and more.

Motive explained that the new platform is designed to give businesses across industries real-time visibility into their operations and enable AI-based automation of key workflows. The idea is that by identifying risks, problems and opportunities for customers and automatically taking action, Motive’s applications can improve the safety, productivity and profitability of physical operations.

“Changing our name to Motive better reflects the diversity of customers we serve and problems we solve,” said Motive Chief Executive Shoaib Makani.

Image: Motive