uDrove updates pricing, plans for ELD

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The Truckstop.com-owned uDrove company has updated pricing for its CFR 395.15-compliant automatic onboard recording device (AOBRD) to better reflects its most recent assessments of the market ahead of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s final rule mandating the use of electronic logging devices (ELDs) for compliance with the hours of service. Says Truckstop.com’s Thayne Boren, general manager for the company’s mobile services, “We’ve gotten more aggressive in our pricing” — meaning it’s gone down considerably.

To utilize the basic uDrove smartphone/tablet app for hours of service, minus the engine connection hardware that makes it a 395.15-compliant log, a $5/month fee applies. AOBRD service is available now for $25/month with a Pro account.

The uDrove app is available for both Android and iOS-powered smartphones and tablets. Information about the platform is avaialble via the company’s website.The uDrove app is available for both Android and iOS-powered smartphones and tablets. Information about the platform is avaialble via the company’s website.

For small fleets looking only for asset-tracking capabilities for dispatch, it’s $15 a month with a Prime account, he adds. With a two-year service agreement, up-front hardware costs can be zero. Otherwise, “a $65 one-time fee would provide them the hardware.”

Boren noted the company is at work toward making certain its product updates will satisfy the technical specifications in the ELD Final Rule, and expects to have everything in place to self-certify its ELD by the third quarter of 2016.

Unlike some vendors with a bring-your-own-device-type solution that pairs operators’ smartphones with an engine-electronic-control-module-connected “black box” to make an ELD, uDrove’s engine-connection hardware maintains a cellular connection itself, meaning the system does not accrue a significant amount of added data usage within operators’ phone plans, Boren says. “We want the customers to be able to have the same experience” utilizing their smartphones “as they normally would, and not infringe upon their ability to do other things, such as face-time back home with the family.”

Other changes upcoming to the uDrove product:
***“We’re going to rebrand uDrove [more directly with] Truckstop.com,” Boren says, and “we’ll offer the load-board functionality built into” the uDrove app. “Users will be available to find freight or post capacity to Truckstop.com directly there.”

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***The company also aims to make the app something of a one-stop shop for integrated functionality by “plugging in all the business solutions available from the Internet Truckstop group — ITS Dispatch software and the IFTA portion will be built in,” Boren says. Users will be able to quickly and easily “click a button and generate an IFTA report.”

***The Real Time Freight transportation management software, too, will figure in for small carriers to “have the same technology options as the larger fleets” in terms of TMS software.

“At the end of the day,” Boren says, “we want this to be something that carriers [and drivers] can use to get analytics about their businesses. That’s what we want to bring to the mobile platform.”

Current updates to the uDrove system are reflected in our comparison chart of electronic-log providers available at this link.

User reviews and ratings are available at CCJ’s Reader Reviews site. 

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