In the U.S., we depend on public sector organizations to keep critical services running and ensure public safety, even during emergency conditions. These organizations—including government agencies and educational institutions—have immense responsibility serving and protecting their communities. But the public sector faces unique challenges: defending budgets to taxpayers, navigating resource constraints, and addressing costly claims tied to accidents and operational incidents. With billions of dollars spent annually on these claims, finding innovative solutions to efficiently manage operations has never been more critical.

Samsara provides proven technology trusted by thousands of public sector agencies to:

• Maximize budgets with fleet tools to cut costs and reinvest savings back into communities.

• Protect communities with real-time visibility and data-driven insights that help reduce accidents, exonerate drivers, and increase safety.

• Automate manual processes with intuitive solutions that minimize training needs and ensure teams can seamlessly integrate new tools, even with limited resources.

Why do public sector agencies use Samsara? 

Samsara empowers public sector organizations with modern, user-friendly technology designed for quick adoption: 

HD dash cam footage means protection against false claims: Home to the largest metropolitan area in the Rocky Mountains, the City and County of Denver offers essential services, from animal control to infrastructure maintenance. Samsara has enabled the City to make a number of safety gains, including more effective coaching and driver incentive programs. Since implementing AI Dash Cams, video evidence of incidents helped the City reduce false claims by 50%. They also reduced harsh driving by 99%, distracted driving by 98%, and overall safety incidents by 94%. 

“Our old systems only gave us lagging indicators and information after an incident, when it was too late. We wanted one provider that could give us leading indicators to help us make better decisions.” Bill Zollo, Manager, Department of Transportation & Infrastructure, Fleet Management Division at the City and County of Denver

Tracking every asset means time, labor, and cost savings: Michigan State University (MSU) Landscape Services manages 5,000 acres across 16 satellite locations. With Samsara Asset Tags on over 200 items, MSU protects over $1 million worth of equipment from theft and loss. They also use Samsara to track equipment usage in real time, cutting idling by 71% to save $60,000 annually. PTO run time data has improved productivity by distinguishing active equipment use and supporting accountability, reducing labor and fleet needs. 

"Without the Asset Tag, we wouldn't have realized that the equipment was gone, because it was taken in the middle of the night. Every asset we recover is an asset we don’t need to replace. The cost we now spend to track an asset with Asset Tag immediately pays for itself, just by giving us the knowledge of where our assets are and avoiding the time and labor it takes to locate equipment.” Matt Bailey, Landscape Services Manager at MSU

Real-time tracking means replacement vehicle costs are avoided: The Tennessee Department of General Services' Vehicle and Asset Management (VAM) Division optimizes its diverse fleet of assets and vehicles using Samsara real-time tracking technology. With a combination of Vehicle Gateways, Asset Gateways, and Asset Tags, VAM has access to live GPS and detailed utilization reports. This visibility has been critical for ensuring fast emergency response and has enabled the recovery of stolen vehicles, reducing the need for costly replacements. Furthermore, this enhanced oversight has improved driver behavior, leading to a significant decrease in severe speeding incidents.

Real-time driver coaching means improved safety in critical conditions: Known as "the Big Easy," New Orleans has nearly 400,000 residents and millions of visitors each year for cultural events like Mardi Gras. As part of their overall focus on safety, the City implemented Samsara AI Dash Cams in ambulances and other vehicles to monitor unsafe behaviors and improve driver coaching for EMTs, paramedics, and other personnel. Over 12 months, New Orleans EMS reduced speeding by 37% and mobile phone use by 46%, while EMD lowered speeding by 16% and collision risk by 81% in just six months.

"With our previous system, we would get data about risky driving behaviors a week after it happened, and we couldn't tie it to a particular driver. With Samsara, we can see which operators are using which vehicles, and Samsara will give them real-time feedback to flag behavior. Samsara helps us coach our operators within hours, when it's more likely to be effective.” Cedric Palmisano, Deputy Chief of Special Operations and Logistics at the City of New Orleans

Live school bus tracking means safer student transportation and time back for admins: Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), one of the 10 largest U.S. school districts, transports over 182,000 students daily. Using Samsara AI Dash Cams, GCPS improved fleet safety and efficiency, reducing harsh braking by 60% and seat belt violations by 47% within three months through proactive coaching. Easily-retrieved dash cam footage cut investigation time for bus incidents by 50%, from up to two weeks to 24-48 hours. Real-time GPS tracking also saved over 400 hours weekly across dispatch, supervisors, and transport managers.

“GPS used to be an afterthought with our previous vendor. Now, we use Samsara everyday for multiple departments in our division. Samsara gives us the ability to take millions of data points and take action on them, bridging the gap between our back office and what goes on in the real world.” Charley Humble, Executive Director of Transportation at GCPS

Streamlined fleet operations mean city assets are fully utilized: Managing public works for 2.3 million residents in the City of Houston is a complex responsibility. With a fleet of nearly 4,000 vehicles and assets—including light-duty trucks, construction equipment, trailers, and boats—Houston Public Works provides essential services like road maintenance, clean drinking water, and wastewater treatment. With Samsara telematics, they streamlined fleet operations, improved accountability, and empowered employees to work more efficiently. Leveraging real-time data to track vehicle and asset utilization, they can quickly make decisions about reassignment or retirement. 

“We run utilization reports frequently and reach out to supervisors if we see a vehicle that hasn’t been used in awhile. Sometimes, that’s all it takes for teams to put an asset back into rotation that may have fallen off the radar—or decide that it’s time to retire or replace the asset. Real-time data helps us keep our fleet rightsized and ensure that our utilization is as strong as it can be.” Margarita Garcia, Sr. Division Manager at Houston Public Works

Improved efficiency during emergencies mean lower utility rates and quicker response times for citizens: Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW), the largest three-service municipal utility in the U.S., powers Memphis and Shelby County with critical utility services. To maintain top-tier safety and efficiency, even in emergency conditions, MLGW uses Samsara for real-time visibility. By integrating with ArcGIS, they can quickly dispatch available technicians based on vehicle location to service outages. These improvements in service restoration have significantly enhanced operational efficiency, ultimately helping to keep MLGW’s rates low. 

“The economy of deploying resources during an outage and being able to deconflict our team allows us to get power back on more quickly. All of that has enabled us to keep rates low.” Doug McGowen, President and CEO at MLGW

Simplified parent communication and improved student safety: Berkeley County School District transports over 17,000 students daily across West Virginia, with safety as their top priority. To improve visibility for administrators and parents, the district partnered with Samsara, achieving notable safety improvements and time savings. Now, the team can retrieve video footage in less than 20 minutes, down from hours. Real-time GPS tracking streamlines parent communication, allowing administrators to quickly address inquiries. These tools save 10+ hours weekly across five administrators while enhancing confidence in student safety.

“We’ve saved so much time through Samsara’s real-time feedback and video retrieval. Plus, now that drivers are being coached, we’re receiving fewer calls about safety because drivers are paying more attention to what’s happening on the road.” Eric Keesecker, Executive Director of School Transportation at Berkeley County School District

Comprehensive fleet visibility means faster emergency response during natural disasters: Located on Florida's Gulf Coast in the Tampa Bay area, St. Petersburg is home to over 265,000 residents, making it the state's fifth-largest city. Samsara has become a key resource for the City, improving efficiency across departments, especially during natural disaster response like hurricanes. Tools like Vehicle Gateways and Asset Tags save significant time locating vehicles and equipment when every second counts. Samsara also helped the City improve safety, reducing harsh driving events by 23% and speeding by 11%. 

“During an emergency like a hurricane, public demand is high and sometimes generators and other critical equipment can go missing. Samsara helps us locate equipment and recover it quickly, which means we provide better service and don’t have to spend public funds on replacements.” TK Kapous, Fleet Information Systems Coordinator at the City of St. Petersburg

Rapid video retrieval means fewer insurance payouts and admin time saved: Canyons School District is one of the largest school bus operations in Utah’s Salt Lake County, serving 15,000 students a day across more than 30 schools. With Samsara dual-facing AI Dash Cams, Canyons gained real-time visibility and proactive coaching across their fleet, resulting in decreased mobile usage and a 50% reduction in incidents. When incidents do occur, quick and easy video retrieval helps them improve back-office efficiency by 75%, saving an estimated $100,000 in insurance payouts.

“We can see the driver and the incident clearly. You can’t deny what you see on the video. Now we can do more data-driven training with our drivers and teach them how to be more aware of what’s around them.” Jeremy Wardle, Director of Transportation at Canyons School District 

Enhanced school bus visibility means faster incident investigations: Mobile County Public Schools (MCPS), Alabama’s largest school district, operates a fleet of 700 buses transporting 25,000 students daily. To improve fleet visibility and safety, MCPS implemented Samsara’s safety solution. This allows supervisors to proactively coach drivers on risky behaviors like speeding, harsh braking, and mobile device use, while on-demand video retrieval simplifies incident investigations. Enabled by proactive driver coaching tools, MCPS also reduced speeding by 50%, significantly enhancing safety for students and drivers.

“For any incidents reported by parents or students, the combination of Samsara and our routing software helps us easily find out what happened.” Omar Farid, Program Specialist at MCPS

The go-to solution for public sector 

Bypass lengthy RFP processes and implement Samsara’s solutions seamlessly, giving your agency the tools to work efficiently and effectively. Three partners that make it easier for public sector agencies to adopt and scale modern technology include:

• Carahsoft: As a Master Government Aggregator®, Carahsoft simplifies procurement of Samsara’s platform through pre-negotiated, compliant contracts—accelerating deployment and reducing administrative overhead.

• FirstNet: With FirstNet’s priority cellular connectivity, Samsara customers can rely on always-on communication for mission-critical operations, even during emergencies or times of high network demand.

• Esri: By integrating with Esri’s ArcGIS Velocity, Samsara customers can use real-time fleet data in ArcGIS to visualize locations on a map, perform analysis as events occur, and send alerts, improving decision-making for operations, situational awareness, and emergency response..