Azuga Review: Smart and Efficient Route Creation

Azuga is a GPS fleet tracking system used by more than 13,000 commercial fleets worldwide, and according to our research, it’s one of the best out there for creating efficient routes. Azuga’s intelligent route optimization features use machine learning to help you plan and optimize single or multiple routes across a fleet and find the quickest route available while avoiding traffic congestion and possibly dangerous areas. 

What’s more, Azuga has plenty of other powerful driver and vehicle management features too, meaning it stacks up well as an all-round solution for your fleet management needs. This Azuga review will detail everything you need to know from pricing to key features, and compare its potential to other leading systems.

In this review, we’ll take a closer look at Azuga’s layout and features, how much the platform costs to purchase, and how it stacks up against other top fleet management systems.

Azuga Review: Pros, Cons, and Overview

Below is a summary of what Azuga could offer you fleet business.

Azuga Review: Design and Layout

While we thought that GPS Insight’s interface didn’t have the most sleek and modern appeal compared to the likes of Verizon and Samsara, Azuga has an even more dated aesthetic.

As you can see from the image below, showing the live map page, the icons and text are reminiscent of 2000’s era website design in the textures of buttons and basic typography.

It doesn’t look that impressive then, but this basics-first design does mean navigation is simple and obvious for users.

You can move across the six sections of the top navigation bar – Live Map, Rewards, Dashboard, Reports, Maintenance, Admin – which is fixed on every page.

Button icons are pretty straightforward too, with an image of a fence for geofencing or a filter icon for various map options, meaning it shouldn’t’ take much effort to get acquainted with the platform’s tools.

Its software can also plan, re-route, and reschedule deliveries while helping to minimize business expenses and maximize productivity.

For instance, if you’ve created a route with multiple stops, Azuga can automatically optimize it by reordering the stops to create the shortest or quickest route that includes all stops. Drivers can even be alerted when near the cheapest gas station in the local area. All in all, its route planning prowess helped Azuga land a spot in our best telematics companies ranking.

Azuga’s Vehicle Tracking Features

Azuga’s quickest refresh rate is between 30-second and 2-minutes, depending on your package, which is almost on par with our top scorer in this category, Verizon Connect, which has a standard 30-second refresh time across the board.

Azuga is the only product we reviewed that allows for complete customization, leaving fleet managers the option to have driver insight when and where they require it. Take geofencing, for example. With Azuga, you can have your geofencing set up on your account to either send you alert notifications or not on vehicle entry and exit. Plus, you have full control over geofence tracking hours based on your business needs.

Azuga is also one of the few systems that provide real-time weather updates via its live tracking map. Although, it’s not as thorough as Verizon’s weather layers, which exceeds normal expectations, allowing you to track the wind velocity, surface air pressure, and even tropical cyclone and hurricane track forecasts.

• Set automatic alerts for dangerous driving events, such as speeding, harsh cornering, harsh acceleration, and geofence breaches.
• Generate driver scorecards based on the frequency of dangerous driving events
• Track safety data, such as speeding, hard braking, and sudden acceleration
• View driver footage uploaded from SafetyCam dash cams

Vehicle management tools

While Azuga requires you to pay an extra $2.99 per vehicle for its maintenance reporting, it can be a worthwhile expense. It allows you access to the following:

• An overview of vehicles that need immediate maintenance and vehicles that are overdue their schedule
• All service records, including uploaded receipts, for your fleet
• Alerts and notifications for service due, oil changes, engine hours, mileage, and other preventative services

Competitors like Verizon and Samsara have automatic maintenance scheduling tools include with their packages by default, so the additional cost can be off-putting. However, you can take advantage of its 45-day Schedule Maintenance to test drive if it is for you.

How Does Azuga Compare With Other Fleet Management Systems?

Now you know where Azuga’s strengths and weaknesses lie it’s worth directly comparing its core capabilities with some other top-rated providers.

Here’s a quick rundown of the best options on the US market:

Azuga vs Verizon Connect

Since Verizon Connect is our top-rated provider overall, and comes at a similar cost per vehicle per month (from our experience), it’s worth comparing Azuga directly. And while you may think it’s a slam dunk for Verizon on first look, they both offer their relative strengths and weaknesses.

We reckon Azuga is the better choice for route customization since you have full control over all stops when it comes to automatic route optimization, wherein Verizon’s first and last stops are fixed. On the other hand, Azuga can automatically optimize it by reordering the stops to create the shortest or quickest route that includes all stops.

Still, in general, Verizon Connect Reveal does offer more advanced and extensive features than Azuga. It goes the extra mile, for instance, with predictive analytics for your vehicle management and more customizable dashboards to facilitate data-driven decision-making.

That’s not to say Azuga lacks analytics tools, however. In fact, Azuga has insight mileage reporting that rivals Verizon, including on state mileage: miles driven by your vehicle within a state for a requested period. By contrast, Verizon Connect Reveal only tracks your vehicle’s total distance travelled and doesn’t offer a state-by-state mileage breakdown. 

Elsewhere, if your business involves transporting food and other temperature-sensitive goods, Verizon (amongst others like Samsara) offers cargo temperature monitoring unlike Azuga, which could make it a better option for an all-in-one integrated system.

While it has a more extensive array of features, Verizon Connect Reveal also has a more opaque pricing structure than Azuga. You’ll need to get a quote for your business before getting any idea of potential costs, as none are listed on its website.

Unlike Azuga however, Verizon offers a 30-day free trial letting you try it out for a month before you buy. It does have a Reveal Starter plan too which, while more basic, is around $20 per vehicle, per month which is cheaper than Azuga’s lowest-cost option.

Still, depending on the extent of your package, this price can vary substantially and, according to our research, can go above the highest cost of Azuga. In other words, it is best to get a quote directly to be sure of what you could be paying.

Azuga vs GPS Insight

While not as sleek as Verizon Connect Reveal, GPS Insight’s interface felt intelligently designed and more current compared to Azuga’s aesthetic.

Both offer strong driver-centered tools, with Azuga’s driver safety rewards program impressing us in one breath and GPS Insight’s driver monitoring and coaching system in another.

Reporting is a strength of both too, though GPS Insight just takes the win by offering six core categories it considers (Activity, Diagnostic, Driver, Landmark, Speeding, and Stop Detail) with 39 reporting subsections. Azuga is just behind on a reported 33.

Elsewhere, GPS Insight has a route optimization tool that re-orders routes based on highway, speed, and distance preferences. And unlike Verizon, you can change the start and finish points.

However, we’d argue that Azuga still goes that bit further by considering things like commercial routing and left/right turn restrictions, delivery time windows, volume and weight constraints, per route max stop limits, and even predictive weather constraints.

Where GPS Insight has a clear edge is its pricing and contract terms. Its Basic package starts at $14.95 per vehicle, per month (up to a reported $32.95/mth) and it offers no-contract term options to allow you to use it month-by-month. As discussed above, Azuga starts its pricing at $25 per vehicle, per month (up to $35/mth) and you’ll need to sign on to a three-year contract too.

Though, at least with Azuga you can be sure of what you are paying from the get-go thanks to that transparent pricing structure. Like Verizon, GPS Insight requires you to get a custom quote for your business needs.

How We Reviewed Azuga