Government

Denver International Airport improves vehicle utilization and avoids $400K in acquisition costs

DEN digitally transforms their fleet operations with timely, accurate data, leading to improved maintenance and compliance, more efficient snow operations, and better reporting across the organization.

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Meet Denver International Airport

1,430 ASSETS

67 EMPLOYEES

54 SQ. MILES COVERED

The Challenge

Outdated, manual processes lead to inefficient fleet maintenance and utilization

Denver International Airport (DEN) is one of the largest and most complex airports in the world, serving millions of travelers each year across 54-square-miles of roads, runways, and terminals. To keep DEN operating, the airport relies on nearly 1,430 assets—including sweepers, snowplows, passenger vehicles, and electric carts—and a team of 67 employees. "Our assets are used by every single division at the airport, including our fire and police departments," said Matthew McKibbin, Fleet Operations Manager. "Everything our fleet does touches every single division at the airport."

Despite the size and scope of their operations, DEN's fleet depended largely on manual processes. Drivers entered odometer readings into a fueling system that fed into the airport's asset management software. However, drivers often recorded inaccurate mileage when fueling. Without reliable data, preventative maintenance schedules were either triggered incorrectly or missed entirely, leaving expensive assets chronically under-serviced.

In addition, fleet managers had no reliable way to determine whether vehicles were being used, and departments regularly requested additional vehicles without demonstrating a genuine need. The airport's rapid growth demanded a smarter, technology-driven approach to fleet management to help improve efficiency and help the team manage their resources more effectively.

"Before, we'd crunch numbers for so long we'd get lost in what we were actually trying to accomplish. Now, Samsara gives us the ability to make informed decisions in real time."

Matthew McKibbin

Fleet Operations Manager

The Solution

A flexible solution for managing a complex fleet

When DEN's fleet leadership began evaluating telematics platforms, they quickly discovered they were looking for more than a GPS tracker. They needed a platform with flexible reporting, strong integration capabilities, and the ability to grow alongside an increasingly complex operation. "Samsara's flexibility stood out to us immediately," said McKibbin. "Our team really liked the fact that Samsara could be used with a diverse range of vehicles and asset types."

DEN has implemented Samsara Vehicle Gateways in their powered equipment, and continues to roll out and optimize other Samsara solutions, such as Dash Cams and Asset Tag, across their fleet. In addition to Samsara's capabilities, DEN's fleet team was also impressed by Samsara's reporting capabilities. "The reporting is intuitive and easy to understand," said Manyi Eno, Fleet Program Administrator. "We also appreciate the innovation that's gone into the reporting tools over the years. It gets easier to work with as time goes on."

Fleet Telematics

DEN improves vehicle utilization and avoids $400K in acquisition costs

With Samsara Fleet Telematics, DEN has been able to eliminate manual data entry and now has precise data that has significantly improved their fleet operations. With utilization data, the team was able to identify vehicles that were barely being used by their assigned departments. With concrete data to justify their decisions, they were able to reassign them to other divisions, saving $400,000 in acquisition costs. In addition, Samsara's Idling Report helped DEN achieve a 43% decrease in long-duration idling of 60 minutes or more.

Open Platform

Samsara's open API connects data to critical systems

Samsara's open platform and integration capabilities allow fleet data to flow directly into the enterprise systems the organization already relies on. By connecting Samsara to IBM Maximo, the airport's asset management software, and to Microsoft Power BI, their enterprise reporting environment, DEN has replaced a fragmented, manually maintained data landscape with a single connected ecosystem. These integrations have made reporting more accurate and have cut down significantly on the amount of time it takes to create and share reports.

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