MANUFACTURING

ADS reduces at-fault accidents by 91% with Samsara's safety solution

ADS replaced a fragmented, reactive system with Samsara's connected platform, reducing at-fault accidents by 91% and reporting time from hours to minutes while building a proactive, driver-first safety culture across one of the largest private fleets in the U.S.

Powered by the Samsara Connected Operations Platform

Meet ADS

500 DRIVERS

1,100 TRACTOR-TRAILERS

70 SHIP-FROM LOCATIONS

The Challenge

Fragmented systems left one of the country's largest private fleets without the visibility to match its growth

Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS) is a manufacturer of water management products built around a strong environmental mission: capturing, conveying, treating, and returning water naturally to the environment to help prevent flooding. While manufacturing is its core business, ADS also operates one of the 50 largest private fleets in the U.S. running its own logistics network across the U.S. and Canada with roughly 500 drivers and 1,100 tractor-trailers, including custom 53-foot green cage trailers.

As ADS grew, its legacy ELD provider couldn't keep pace. "Our previous ELD platform was limited and outdated. We didn't have real-time visibility into our assets so half the time, we were trying to figure out where things were," said Chris Miller, Fleet Operations Manager. Tools like speed tracking lived in a separate application, adding manual work to daily operations, and safety coaching remained largely reactive without the proactive visibility needed to correct trends before they led to an incident. These gaps became a bottleneck the fleet was ready to outgrow. "We were looking for the complete package that incorporated asset visibility and the ability to build a proactive safety program," said Miller.

Our vision is to leverage Samsara to build a safety program that drives our culture. We want our drivers to be empowered to do the right thing and take pride in what they do. We want coaching to improve their behavior and then recognize those improvements using Kudos and Competitions with real prizes.

Chris Miller

Fleet Operations Manager

The Solution

A culture-first approach turned safety into a shared, positive priority

ADS was ready to transition to a single platform rather than another point solution, and the decision to move to Samsara was reinforced by seeing a close partner succeed with the same technology. ADS brought its roughly 500 drivers and 1,100 tractor-trailers onto Samsara, completing installation and standing up an in-cab safety program built on dual-facing AI Dash Cams and new tools for company-wide visibility into the fleet.

The real work was in how ADS introduced that technology to its people. Rather than rushing into dash cam monitoring, ADS kept camera covers on inward-facing cameras for two years, using that runway for driver feedback and trust-building. The company also ran a pilot one year ahead of the full rollout to refine onboarding and coaching first. Throughout, ADS anchored coaching on three legally-grounded behaviors and committed to building a safety program that focuses on catching positive trends and celebrating safe driving rather than discipline. "We're building a program that's non-punitive, that's proactive. If something does happen, we're managing the trend and coaching behaviors that could lead to higher-risk incidents," said Miller.

Workforce Management

Reducing speeding by 35% with coaching and gamification

ADS continues to transform its safety program from reactive to proactive by pairing Samsara's AI Dash Cams and AI detections with trend-based coaching. Since launch, severe speeding is down 35% fleet-wide and mobile phone and seatbelt infractions are down 55% and 38%, respectively. Recorded video has also cleared ADS drivers of fault in 91% of crashes, protecting both drivers and the bottom line. The company recently launched a pilot of Drive to Green, a driver recognition program that leverages Samsara Competitions to turn Safety Scores into an engaging tool for positive reinforcement. Early results have been encouraging, with speeding events reduced by 75% and cell phone and seat belt violations nearly eliminated. These initial outcomes demonstrate the impact that recognizing and celebrating safe driving behaviors can have on improving overall fleet safety performance.

Platform

Agent Studio cuts weekly reporting time significantly and helps identify process gaps

KPI and safety leaderboard reporting used to take ADS's fleet operations team up to six hours of manual data-pulling every week. Using Samsara's Agent Studio, the team built a custom agent that automates that reporting entirely, cutting the six-hour process to under 15 minutes and grouping locations into fair, size-based tiers for comparisons. Along the way, the agent-generated report surfaced an unexpected spike in Hours of Service compliance issues, leading ADS to uncover a gap in how it managed off-duty logs for departing and on-leave drivers. The team has since put new SOPs in place to close that gap, turning a reporting shortcut into a proactive compliance safeguard.

Telematics

Weather Intelligence brings real-time fleet tracking and weather into a single view

ADS used to rely on manual weather checks and telematics data to figure out which trucks might be heading into hazardous conditions, a reactive process that put drivers at risk. With Weather Intelligence, Samsara overlays live weather data directly onto ADS's live fleet view, and ADS brings that combined view to life on a large interactive touchscreen at headquarters. This shared command center serves as a real-time operational hub, allowing ADS to monitor its driver network, track changing road conditions, and respond quickly to weather-related disruptions.

Ready to team up?

We're ready when you are. Let's talk about what your operation needs.