Global automotive parts supplier Continental is collaborating with fleet management solution provider KeepTruckin to switch the electronic logging devices (ELDs) used by its customer base to KeepTruckin’s ELD solutions.
In that regard, Continental has discontinued its previous ELD program with RoadLog – a situation that James McCarthy, business development manager at Continental, described as an “extremely hard decision.”
McCarthy explained that Continental made the decision after due diligence on the continually changing market landscape. Continental currently has a 3G product and is looking to modify it to a 5G platform in the near future.
“We expect to get it up to the current hours of service standards that we know are going to change shortly. We did not see an ability to continue to provide a low-cost option to our customer base with these changes. So we thought it’d be best to hand that off to KeepTruckin and let them handle the ELD services,” said McCarthy.
For KeepTruckin, this partnership acts as an opportunity to assist a well-established player in the automotive space. “Ultimately, we want to support truckers and drivers in their professional endeavors, and that is what our platform is designed to do,” said Jack Spangler, a strategic retail partner manager at KeepTruckin.
Due to the uncertainty and volatility in the market due to the global pandemic, KeepTruckin has introduced special offers for Continental’s customer base to ease their transition of switching platforms from the RoadLog ELD to the KeepTruckin ELD. Spangler explained that these packages would not just highlight the benefits of the new platform, but also show the users how KeepTruckin would be a great long-term partner from a technology perspective.
Continental has given its customers roughly four months to transition from RoadLog to KeepTruckin and will stop all RoadLog Office services and technical support by August 14. KeepTruckin will actively connect with Continental’s customers to see how they receive it, and help ease the transition to the new technology as needed.
“This is a service-based product that is about compliance – making it vital to the operation of the trucking industry at this point. So, we were very cautious and careful to pick a supplier that we felt we could trust. KeepTruckin has 250,000 drivers and is currently standing by its drivers, and we thought it’d be a great partnership,” said McCarthy.
“They have a product that is scalable – from owner-operators that just want compliance, all the way up to large fleets. Trucking businesses are looking for an opportunity to have more telematics-based systems, and KeepTruckin has it. It just made sense to partner with them.”