Field Services, USA

Superior Plus Propane plans to use their existing cameras for extended visibility with the Samsara Camera Connector.

Highlights

• Projected decrease in backup incidents due to extended visibility from the Camera Connector, which connects their cameras to Samsara's Connected Operations Cloud.

• Projected annual savings from false property damage claims with the ability to pull third-party camera footage via cloud-based retrieval.

• 6x faster installation time to deploy Camera Connector compared to ripping and replacing existing cameras.

About

Superior Plus Propane is a propane distributor serving 24 states across the U.S. with 2,300 trucks and more than 1,000 drivers.

Challenge

Because Superior Plus Propane mainly delivers propane to homeowners, their drivers frequently reverse large bobtail trucks into narrow residential driveways. Every year, backup incidents and property damage claims cost their business.

Even though they installed third-party backup cameras with in-cab monitors on about 750 of their vehicles, they were still experiencing backup incidents. Since the footage wasn’t viewable by their safety team, they had no visibility to coach drivers or investigate call-ins regarding property damage.

Superior needed a way to leverage their existing camera investments to give their safety team more visibility, especially since their business is growing by acquisition. “Many of the vehicles we acquire already have different camera systems installed. It’s not easy to rip and replace existing cameras,” said Bruce Ruppert, Director of Fleet.

Solution

With Samsara, Superior’s team has seen how effective video-based coaching can be. Less than six months after installing Samsara AI Dash Cams, they achieved a 90% reduction in speeding. Now, Samsara’s Camera Connector is enabling them to expand the success of their video-based safety program to another priority area—reducing backup incidents—all within the same platform, while leveraging their existing camera investments.

Per vehicle, each Camera Connector takes Superior’s in-house team approximately 20 minutes to install and integrate with their existing cameras, compared to 2+ hours to rip and replace existing cameras. Once installed, the Camera Connector will provide the ability to view their backup footage in the Samsara dashboard alongside dual-facing footage from Samsara AI Dash Cams.

With this extended visibility, Superior’s safety team can coach drivers more effectively on their backup protocols. “It will give us the opportunity to watch our drivers actually perform the task and take a deeper look into how they are or are not following protocols,” said Ryan Quiggle, Director of Health and Safety. They anticipate this will help them significantly reduce backup incidents, while also building trust with drivers and strengthening their entire coaching program. “Having the Camera Connector will allow us to sit in our drivers’ seats and walk in their shoes,” said Quiggle. “It will give us a much clearer picture into their exposure and the hazards they’re facing.”

Plus, with the ability to retrieve footage from up to 70 hours of drive time, the Camera Connector will make it possible for Superior to investigate call-ins and exonerate drivers from false property damage claims. “There are many instances where we’re told we backed into something,” said Quiggle. “Now, we will be able to go back and easily retrieve the footage to prove when it wasn’t us, avoiding that unnecessary cost.”

Results

As a result of extended visibility from the Camera Connector, Superior Plus Propane expects to significantly reduce backup incidents and costs related to false property damage claims. Plus, because each Camera Connector is 6x faster to install compared to ripping and replacing existing cameras, it will save their team hundreds of hours.

“The Camera Connector can help us take full advantage of existing cameras as we grow through acquisition, helping us scale our video-based safety program in a cost-effective way.”

— Bruce Ruppert, Director of Fleet