FIELD SERVICES
How Roto-Rooter Invests in Safety at Scale
Learn how Roto-Rooter uses Samsara to manage their team of service providers, streamline operations, prevent incidents, and reduce costs.
Meet Roto-Rooter
20+ STATES SERVED
2,500 VEHICLES
52 LOCATIONS
The Challenge
Building a safety solution at scale
Roto-Rooter is a leading plumbing and water clean-up company based in the United States. As a service provider, Roto-Rooter doesn’t run routes. Instead, vehicles are dispatched to their next location based on timing, proximity, and urgency. “Because our drivers are always on the move, everything we do is on mobile devices: jobs, directions, etc.” explains Kim Ohl, Director of Safety and Risk Management. “This of course meant there were issues with distraction. We needed a provider that made it possible to communicate with drivers, while also protecting them.” With more than 1,200 drivers, Roto-Rooter needed to find a solution that would enable them to invest in safety at scale.
THE SOLUTION
All-in-one platform improved communication and increased safety
Samsara was the only solution they tried that met their needs. Samsara empowers regional managers to communicate with drivers, while also reducing distracted driving behaviors.
Ohl adopted a two-step approach to implementing Samsara. First, she focused on securing buy-in from the management team. “This was fairly easy once we provided the numbers. Just paying for physical damage in this world is really different than 10 years ago. If we can reduce insurance claim costs, that impacts our bottom line.” With management on board, they prepared three pilots and immediately saw a decrease in harsh incidents.
Once the pilots were done and management was engaged, Ohl and her team planned to introduce the technology to all employees. One critical step they took was capturing exonerations during the pilots. By showing these exonerations during roll-out, they were able to better engage drivers. “Exoneration has been key to this,” explains Ohl. “We’ve had moments where employees get pulled over and they point to the camera. That’s a huge positive.”
From there, they focused on one issue at a time. “We didn’t want to lose technicians or drivers,” said Ohl. “By focusing on the positive aspects and addressing concerns, we haven’t really had any attrition.”
THE RESULTS
Centralized visibility into branch performance
By introducing Samsara, managers now feel like they have more control. Samsara’s ease of use has made even less technologically-savvy teammates comfortable. With the Safety Inbox, they can pinpoint behaviors precisely and recognize or coach drivers.
Having a single solution has streamlined administrative communications as well. Ohl can easily run multiple reports and send specific reports to branches. Branch managers can do the same. Everyone has access to the same data and Ohl has newfound visibility into branch performance.
