Polyak Trucking uncovers $53K in incorrect overtime payments with Samsara

One platform for telematics and cameras, installed in a weekend

Polyak's checklist was straightforward: dependable dash cams and telematics, hardware her team could install quickly, and data that was easy to access and understand. "Once I saw that Samsara's Vehicle Gateways and AI Dash Cams were designed to work together, it was an easy call," she said. Polyak decided to skip a trial and move directly to implementation. "It came down to Samsara simply covering everything I needed." Polyak tied the changeover to a scheduled safety meeting, and employee drivers and owner-operators brought in their trucks to have Vehicle Gateways and AI Dash Cams installed together. "We were able to roll out our Samsara hardware over a weekend," she said. "It was much easier to install than Geotab and took far less time than other solutions we've used."

Uncovering $53K in savings and protecting drivers with video evidence

Samsara has helped Polyak Trucking gain better visibility into its operations, helping the company find savings in unexpected places. In one example, Polyak discovered $53,000 in overtime that was incorrectly paid out to a driver who didn't log out of the system as required. In another, Polyak combined Samsara telematics with Bestpass toll data to see how her drivers were running the same routes. "I had two drivers on the same route, leaving an hour apart. One paid $74 in tolls and the other paid $26, and the less expensive driver actually got there 22 minutes faster," she said. "Saving almost $50 a day on tolls adds up very quickly, and now I have the exact data to prove it can be done." With clean, dependable data from Samsara, Polyak can use AI tools like Claude to surface insights she never had time to chase. "Now, it only takes me a few minutes to spot issues that would have taken me weeks to find across systems," she said. "I trust the data, and it's opening new avenues to find more savings and efficiency across our operations." In addition to surfacing data insights, Samsara is also helping to improve safety on the road. As part of its safety program, Polyak Trucking uses a points system to track driver behavior. Speeding and hard-braking events detected by Samsara are automatically fed into the system, and drivers who stay violation-free earn a bonus.

Samsara video also protects drivers against false claims and keeps them accountable. When a driver ran a red light and hit a Polyak truck, the video showed the truck driver had the right of way and was not at fault. In another incident, video of an employee driving recklessly through a construction zone helped Polyak win an unemployment hearing. "With Samsara, we know exactly what happened, and the facts speak for themselves," she said.