Mohawk Industries decreases route communication time by 93% with API integration

Streamlined routing benefits drivers, warehouse managers, and customers.

Pen and paper routing was slowing Mohawk down. Not only were paper logs time-consuming for staff to process, they left customers without any real-time visibility into their deliveries. Leveraging Samsara Vehicle Telematics, Mohawk upgraded their delivery tracking to better meet their customers’ needs.

“We’ve gone from having to give a two hour, stagnant delivery window—that our drivers would sometimes miss—to minute-by-minute updates for our customers,” said Matt Kin, Director of Delivery Operations. “This has been a big win for our customers.” 

This visibility also benefited Mohawk’s warehouse managers. Now, they can track drivers too, and plan their days with more accuracy.

A consolidated driver experience streamlines processes.

With the Samsara Driver App, drivers are now able to log their HOS digitally, a formerly manual process that used to be time consuming and sometimes inaccurate. Now, Mohawk can compare what drivers report to what Samsara tracks and logs, and quickly identify any discrepancies. For drivers, the result is less time tracking and more time driving. “The Driver App is incredible. Our drivers absolutely love it,” Shane Faulkner, Senior Manager of Logistics Technology. “It operates in the background, our drivers hardly need to interact with it, and the accuracy is incredible.”

Another benefit for drivers is faster payment—with digital logs, managers can process HOS more quickly and approve payments on their cell phones. Previously, this process could take days or even weeks, and managers could not approve payment remotely. Mohawk also leverages an API integration with their payroll system, so drivers can be paid directly through the Samsara Driver App too.

“The integration between Samsara and our payroll system has been hugely impactful,” said Kin. “Now drivers don’t have to fill out hand-written paysheets at the end of the day. Everything we used to do on paper, we’re now doing digitally with Samsara. The drivers love that they only have one device they need to work with now—their tablet.”

In addition to optimizing routing, Mohawk has utilized the Driver App to streamline every aspect of their drivers’ experience, including communication.

“Truck drivers don’t like to sit and wait,” said Faulkner. “When they drop off a load they want to know immediately where they’re going next. That’s why the speed of communication that Samsara provides has been so beneficial for us.”

Less siloed data, more business impact.

Beyond payroll, Mohawk has digitally transformed their business operations through Samsara’s API integrations.

“Samsara’s API integrations are game changers for us. We’re only 9 months in and we’ve already integrated Samsara with our most important softwares,” said Faulkner. “We’re also leveraging as much Samsara data as we can to create our own business impact reports with greater ease than ever before.” 

For local routes, drivers need to communicate with dispatchers between each leg to get their next assignment. Prior to partnering with Samsara, these 6,000-8,000 communications per week were difficult to facilitate efficiently, and drivers were losing time while they waited for route assignments. With a custom API integration between the driver app and their dispatching software, Mohawk decreased these route communication times by 93% across their fleet.

Mohawk is also digitizing paperwork and connecting that data through API integrations, including DVIRs, planned vs. actual route reports, delivery stops, miles, and customer signatures. These integrations improve communication and efficiency for their warehouse managers and maintenance team.

“Our DVIRs are now going straight to our maintenance shops for our OTR and local fleets,” said Faulkner. “That gives our maintenance folks a heads up on any issues drivers are reporting and helps them plan their day.”

For Mohawk, the ability to bring disparate data together under one digital roof has been monumental for their business. “I’ve been in this industry for a long time, and I can say that Samsara’s ability to log routes, stops, and deliveries and pay drivers in one app is groundbreaking,” said Kin.

Looking forward, Mohawk plans to dive even deeper into their data from Samsara to inform their upcoming ESG report. Specifically, they’ll highlight how they leverage Samsara’s MPG Report to monitor and track towards better fuel efficiency and reduced fuel costs.

“With Samsara’s ability to see MPG for each driver, we’re driving more efficiently overall,” said Faulkner. “With fuel prices as high as they are, that translates to significant savings for us.”

Safety Scores enable proactive coaching and boost retention.

Thanks to Samsara Safety Scores, Mohawk is proactively identifying drivers who exhibit unsafe behaviors, and providing coaching early and often. “Samsara has a phenomenal tool with the Driver Safety Scores,” said Faulkner. “It has completely changed the way we coach our drivers for the better.” 

With real-time data on safety, Mohawk can help drivers address unsafe behaviors immediately and build better habits for the long term. “We coach drivers on violations as they’re coming into our system. Then, we use Safety Scores to identify low-performing drivers and coach them to improve.” 

This coaching strategy has already yielded impressive results. “When we started this program, we had drivers with Safety Scores that needed improvement” said Mitch Chastain, Director of Supply Chain Safety, Security & Loss Prevention. “Now, we don’t have a single driver below 70 or 80 at a minimum because of the coaching we’ve been able to do.”

This change has been especially beneficial from a retention perspective.

“It’s a tough labor market, and you don’t want to let go of drivers unless you absolutely have to,” said Chastain. “With Samsara, we’re able to identify low-performing drivers earlier than before and coach them to improve their performance before they’re placed into disciplinary action. Because of this, we’ve been able to catch and coach drivers who previously would have been headed for a serious performance improvement plan and even out the door. This is extremely important for our driver retention.” 

Mohawk also leverages Samsara Safety Scores to identify their top drivers, and they created a special recognition and rewards program to incentivize drivers to drive safely and continuously improve.

AI Dash Cam footage exonerates drivers and saves money.

In just the first 6 months with Samsara AI Dash Cams, Mohawk successfully exonerated several drivers.

“We’ve had some accidents occur and we were able to share the footage with law enforcement,” Chastain said. “After seeing the footage, law enforcement then changed the ruling in the accident and exonerated our driver.” 

As a result, AI Dash Cam footage is saving Mohawk time, money, and potential lawsuits.

“We had two incidents that could have resulted in costly lawsuits for us if we hadn’t been able to share the footage with law enforcement,” said Faulkner.

Harnessing the Utilization Report to rightsize strategically.

Making the most of their equipment was top of mind for Mohawk, so when they installed Samsara’s Smart Trailers solution across their fleet, they began aggressively monitoring the data.

“We have Asset Gateways on 1,500+ trailers now,” said Faulkner. “We’re leveraging the Utilization Report to monitor average sitting time. In time, we’re intending to use this report to reduce our trailer count.” 

As Mohawk continues to audit their equipment and assets for underutilization, they plan to lean on Samsara to streamline and simplify the process.

“We also started tracking our chassis and monitoring that utilization as well. Samsara has been an incredible partner,” said Faulkner. “We continue to be impressed every day with what the technology can do.”