How do you quantify the ROI of a safer fleet?

Investing in a video-based fleet safety program isn’t just a great way to protect your drivers and community—it’s also a great way to generate cost savings, improve operational efficiency, and boost your bottom line. From reducing accidents costs to avoiding false claims, keep reading to learn how to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your safety program.

86%

decrease in preventable accident costs (Chalk Mountain Services)

26%

reduction in accidents (DHL)

$1.2M

saved by exonerating a driver (Rasmussen)

Part 1 — Accidents

Decrease the frequency and severity of at-fault accidents

The first—and perhaps most important—way that a successful video-based safety program delivers ROI is by decreasing accidents, both in frequency and severity.

How does a successful safety program reduce accidents?

A comprehensive, video-based fleet safety solution includes two key parts: telematics and dash cams. Together, they provide the robust data and visibility needed for effective driver coaching, safety score gamification, and rewards—all of which help reduce risky driving behavior and make accidents less likely. In fact, the NSTSCE found that when combined with driver coaching, dash cams reduced safety-related events by 52%. Another study from the JSR found that dual-facing dash cams—which record both the road ahead and in-cab activity— had an even larger effect: a 60% reduction in accidents and an 86% reduction in accident-related costs.

When and how to measure ROI

About 3-6 months after coaching drivers with dash cam footage, most fleets will begin to see an impact on the frequency and severity of at-fault accidents. We recommend using a spreadsheet to keep track of your accident rate and accident-related costs before and after launching your program, so you can calculate the percent change in number of accidents and direct costs. If you have an all-in-one platform like Samsara that can detect harsh events and speeding, you should also compare the number of safety-related events and hours over the speed limit month-over-month, since these are both important indicators of risky driving behavior.

Based on aggregated, anonymized data from more than 2.6K Samsara customers, the 2025 Samsara Safety Report revealed that customers that implement Samsara’s complete AI safety solution see a nearly 75% decrease in crash rate. This data demonstrates that in aggregate, Samsara dramatically reduces crashes, risky behaviors, and compliance violations, resulting in proven long-term ROI.


Key Performance Indicators

Decrease in Accidents or Accident Rate

Decrease in accident-related costs or direct costs

Decrease in safety-related events

Decrease in hours over the speed limit

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2025 Samsara Safety Report

Samsara AI helps reduce fleet crash rates by nearly 75%

Based on aggregated, anonymized data from more than 2.6K Samsara customers, the 2025 Samsara Safety Report reveals how Samsara AI helps reduce crash rates. Samsara customers typically see a 35–40% aggregate reduction in crashes over time; however, fleets with 175+ vehicles that adopt Samsara’s full AI safety solution—including Dual-Facing AI Dash Cams, in-cab alerts, and AI coaching—see ~75% decrease in crash rate over 30 months.

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See how Chalk Mountain decreased preventable accident costs by 86%

Chalk Mountain has realized significant ROI from their partnership with Samsara, improving their CSA scores by 17 basis points and achieving a record milestone: 31 million miles without a DOT preventable accident.

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Chalk Mountain
Part 2 — Exoneration

Exonerate innocent drivers and minimize false claim payouts

In addition to reducing the frequency and severity of accidents, a video-based safety program can also deliver ROI by helping you exonerate innocent drivers and avoid unnecessary payouts.

How does a successful safety program reduce false claim payouts?

Without concrete evidence to defend drivers, some fleets spend millions of dollars each year paying insurance claims and fighting long legal battles, which can affect profitability. With dash cams that auto-upload incident footage to the cloud, you can exonerate drivers on the spot, bypass lengthy claims processes, and eliminate unnecessary payouts. In fact, in a recent survey of Samsara customers, more than 50% said they have used Samsara dash cam footage to exonerate drivers in the past year, saving $5,000 to $25,000 on average, with some saving over $100,000 a year.

When and how to measure ROI

Exoneration is the area where fleets usually see the most immediate impact, since many fleets exonerate a driver with dash cam footage within a few months of deployment—if not during their trial period. As soon as your dash cams are fully deployed, we recommend keeping a spreadsheet of every documented instance where dash cam footage exonerated a driver. Estimate how much it would have cost to resolve the incident without the footage, and keep a running tab of estimated savings.


Key Performance Indicators

Dollars saved by exonerating
drivers with dash cam footage

Decrease in false claim payouts

See how Samsara AI Dash Cams can help you avoid false claims

Samsara AI Dash Cams auto-upload event footage to the cloud, making it possible to exonerate innocent drivers on the spot.

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Part 4 — Maintenance

Minimize vehicle wear and tear

In addition to reducing accidents, a video-based safety program can also help decrease vehicle downtime and maintenance due to safer, less abrasive driving.

How does a successful safety program reduce maintenance costs?

Harsh braking wears out brake pads and causes unnecessary stress on vehicles. Combined with acceleration data from a connected telematics device, the best dash cams can play in- cab audio messages when risky driving behaviors are detected. This helps to discourage harsh driving, as well as reduce physical damage and maintenance costs. Plus, data-driven driver coaching reduces accidents, meaning fewer repairs and less downtime across your fleet.

When and how to measure ROI

You can measure the impact of your safety program on maintenance costs in a variety of ways, depending on how your fleet functions—from decreases in brake pad replacements to dollars saved per vehicle repair (or dollars saved due to fewer accidents). For most fleets, having at least 3-6 months of data will be useful to get an early picture of maintenance-related impact.


Key Performance Indicators

Dollars saved per vehicle repair

Decrease in brake pad replacements

Decrease in repair costs due to fewer accidents

Change management guide

Best practices for building a video-based safety program

Learn how Samsara can help you implement a successful fleet safety program from start to finish. This step-by-step change management guide includes implementation best practices, easy-to-follow checklists, safety policy recommendations, and success stories from Samsara customers.

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Cover Best Practices for Building a Video-Based Safety Program

Part 5 — Retention

Improve driver morale and retention

Despite initial apprehension about dash cams, many drivers become more engaged with their jobs due to the rewards and protection that a comprehensive safety program provides.

How does a successful safety program improve retention?

It may be surprising, but dash cams can actually help improve driver retention and decrease driver turnover. How? Although drivers are usually skeptical about dash cams at first, they become more engaged with their jobs once they see the benefits dash cams provide. Not only can dash cams exonerate innocent drivers from blame—which quickly instills trust and goodwill—but they can also enable a robust rewards program based on driver safety scores among other factors. Multiple studies have found that rewards are an extremely effective retention tool; 79% of employees say they work harder when they feel recognized, and 83% of employees say that rewards make them feel more engaged with their job.

When and how to measure ROI

With the competitive labor market, keeping tabs on driver retention is more important than ever. Wait until 3-6 months after you’ve introduced a safety-based rewards program to measure changes in driver turnover. If possible, also keep track of dollars saved in recruitment and replacement costs per driver, a huge cost driver.


Key Performance Indicators

Decrease in driver turnover

Dollars saved in recruitment and replacement costs

See how Rasmussen reduced speeding and rolling stops by 70%

Rasmussen deployed Samsara AI Dash Cams to develop a comprehensive safety program, improving safety with in-cab alerts and exonerating drivers with on-demand video retrieval.

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Rasmussen Safety
Part 6 — Brand

Protect your company’s brand and win more business

A video-based safety program can have widespread effects across your entire business—from helping you protect your brand name to increasing customer loyalty and winning new contracts.

How does a successful safety program protect your brand?

If your fleet has a recognizable logo, you have probably been subject to false claims—people falsely accusing your drivers of damage because they expect an easy payout. Without dash cams, these claims can be difficult to defend against. But with dash cams, you have unbiased evidence that can exonerate your drivers and clear your brand name from fault. In addition, as your video-based safety program helps reduce accidents over time, you should see a decrease in your CSA scores—which can help your company win more business by standing out from the competition.

When and how to measure ROI

The easiest way to measure the impact of your safety program on your brand is to simply calculate the improvement in your CSA scores since fully launching your program. Because the FMCSA updates CSA scores monthly, you should be able see improvement within a few months—especially if you’ve established consistent, effective driver coaching workflows.


Key Performance Indicators

Decrease in CSA scores

Increase in customer loyalty or new business

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See how Samsara dash cams pay for themselves

Dash cams are proven to increase safety and deliver significant ROI. Here are four reasons why the investment is worth it.

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Make fleet safety a priority with Samsara

Samsara offers an all-in-one platform for improving fleet safety, empowering drivers, and reducing costs.

A man in a safety vest adjusts a dash cam while sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle.

Protect drivers in the moments that matter with Samsara AI Dash Cams, which empower fleet drivers to build safe habits with real-time coaching. Samsara’s robust coaching and reporting tools make it easy to optimize driver performance and maximize coaching effectiveness.

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Samsara’s to-the-second GPS and vehicle diagnostics give you best-in-class visibility across your fleet of vehicles to maximize vehicle safety and fleet operations. Minimize risk and maximize uptime with insights into vehicle safety, driver compliance, and fleet security.

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Simplify the driver experience in the cab and beyond with the Samsara Driver App. Increase driver safety with safety training and reward programs, and incentivize safer driver behavior with gamification. Build custom driver training workflows specific to your fleet safety systems and policies.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions about safety program ROI

AI dash cams help reduce accidents, minimize costs, and improve safety across the entire fleet. Many organizations have leveraged Samsara AI Dash Cams to protect their drivers and improve their safety operations. Some examples include:

  • DHL: Consolidated seven separate point solutions into one platform, reduced harsh driving incidents by 65%, cut accidents by 26%, reduced accident-related costs by 49%, improved CSA score by 10%, and decreased driver turnover by 50%.

  • MOOvers Chicago: Achieved an 81% drop in speeding, a 28% reduction in harsh braking, a 10% decrease in distracted driving, and only two minor vehicle accidents over five years.

  • Hogland Transfer Company: Improved overall safety score from 96 to 99, reduced incident investigation time by 52%, saved an estimated $80K in incident-related costs, secured insurance premiums 10% below market average, achieved a 95% driver retention rate, and achieved 42% growth in new business.

  • Custom Transport: Reduced safety-related costs by 95% by deploying AI Dash Cams that automatically capture every low-speed collision, impact event, and risky behavior without requiring driver input, eliminating missed incidents that had previously slipped through with Lytx.

  • C Blackburn: Replaced three technology providers with one unified Samsara platform, retrieved video footage up to three times faster than previous provider Motive, and gained AI detection that catches what Netradyne missed including a driver watching a movie on his phone.

  • Texas Fueling Services: Reduced fuel spills by 111% over three years, decreased spill volume by over 400%, and reduced audit process time from days to just a few hours.

  • Jett Express: Maintained zero preventable accidents, improved CSA score by 6%, and cut investigation times from days to minutes with instant video retrieval after their previous provider took up to 24 hours to retrieve footage.

  • Ferrellgas: Improved driver efficiency scores by 33%, saved 10% on fuel in the first year, and reduced harsh events and speeding by 5% across a fleet of 4,000 vehicles.

  • Corcoran Transportation Group: Avoided a $500,000 lawsuit through instant video exoneration with footage retrieved up to three times faster than previous provider Motive, and implemented a TMS integration that digitized documents and accelerated billing.

  • Quality Custom Distribution: Completely eliminated drowsy driving crashes within six months of activating Drowsiness Detection, achieved a five-year low CSA score, overturned crashes in FMCSA data, and saved millions in claims costs.

  • R.E. Garrison Trucking: Lowered preventable accidents by 30%, reduced workers compensation claims by 83%, and saved $730,000 in fuel costs year over year.

  • Joyride Logistics: Drove 13M miles incident-free, used AI Dash Cam footage to exonerate drivers from false claims, and improved driver retention by 28% in one year.

  • Collins Trucking: Reduced accident rate by 40%, completely eliminated rear-end accidents, and achieved 91% of trailers sitting dormant for less than three days.

  • ITF Group: Reduced accident rates by 30%, cut risky driving behaviors by 50%, reduced harsh braking by 60%, improved driver Safety Scores by 20%, saved $4.4M in insurance premiums over four years at $4,500 per truck per year, and generated $8.4M in combined fuel and insurance savings.

  • UniGroup: Reduced safety events by 42% in one year using in-cab alerts, cut fuel purchase data processing time by 95%, and increased DVIR submissions by 11%.

  • Jordan Carriers: Decreased drivers needing daily coaching by 93%, reduced safety events by 50% in under one year, and cut connected training setup time by 50%.

  • Werner Enterprises: Achieved a 19-year low in DOT-reportable accidents, a 22% decrease in accident rate, 20% decrease in harsh braking, and 50% decrease in harsh turns across a fleet driving three million miles every day.

  • RelaDyne: Saved $350,000 in insurance claims, reduced insurance claim frequency by 82%, and decreased harsh driving by 89%.

  • Kreilkamp Trucking: Reduced preventable incidents by 60%, decreased driver turnover by 20%, and saved 187,000+ gallons of fuel compared to the annual industry average in one year.

  • JRayl Transport: Improved CSA Unsafe Driving score by 71%, improved CSA Crash Indicator by 57%, and exonerated 20+ drivers from false claims.

  • TEAMS Transport: Reduced high-risk driving behaviors by 48%, cut insurance claims by 39% saving over $1M in insurance-related costs, reduced HOS violations by 63%, and saved $389,000 in trailer maintenance and tire-related repairs.

  • ArcBest: Reduced unassigned HOS by 50% and decreased preventable road accidents by 13%. Their compliance leader stated, "We accomplished more in three months than we did in three years with our previous provider."

  • Chalk Mountain Services: Reduced preventable accident costs by 86% and improved driver retention by 15% after finally gaining the video evidence needed to exonerate drivers from not-at-fault accidents.

  • Fraley & Schilling: Saved $800K+ annually with video-based safety cited as a core contributor, reduced overdue preventive maintenance checks by 75%, and saved an estimated $240,000 per year from reduced downtime.

  • StreamTech Industrial: Completely eliminated drowsy driving events, reduced inattentive driving by 52%, speeding by 88%, collision risk by 71%, cut monthly maintenance spend by 30%, reduced invoice processing time by 93%, and protected approximately $1.2 million in critical assets.

  • DWC Mechanical: Avoided an estimated $60,000 in insurance costs from a single exoneration, dropped customer complaint calls to almost nothing, and now runs full safety and fleet operations in just 20 minutes a day.

  • Denali: Decreased preventable DOT-reportable accidents by 83% in one year and maintains an average safety score above 90.

  • Swissport North America: Reduced incidents by 60% and vehicle damage by 23% after deploying 1,600 AI Dash Cams across 93 locations within five months. Director of QHSE Levi Blount stated, "No other system has had such a profound impact on our safety culture in such a short period of time."

  • Hydromax USA: Improved Safety Scores by 9% year over year, recovered a high-value LAMP II robot within 36 hours after theft, and eliminated expedited shipments from not knowing where precision tools were located.

  • Ace Tree Enterprise: Improved safety score from 42 to over 90 after switching from Motive, gained accurate AI detections, and used superior camera quality to successfully refute a property damage claim impossible to contest with Motive's pixelated footage.

  • USIC: Achieved a 90% decrease in distracted driving events within the first 24 hours of activating in-cab alerts, reduced at-fault incidents by 25%, reduced related claims by 30%, decreased drowsy-related accidents by 75%, and surfaced undiagnosed medical conditions like narcolepsy in some drivers. VP of EHS Tom Karnowski stated, "I have never seen a behavioral change program in my life that was so dramatic, so quick, and so capable as Samsara."

  • VLS Environmental Solutions: Saved over $800,000 in annual auto claims, reduced incident-related damages by 19%, improved average safety scores from around 70 to 95 to 97 every month, extended vehicle operational life by 15%, recovered a stolen truck worth approximately $600,000, and saved over $350,000 annually in fuel costs.

  • Sunrun: Reduced vehicle incident rates by 32% in under one year, improved vehicle utilization by 23%, avoided new vehicle purchases by reallocating existing vehicles, and recovered a stolen vehicle within 15 minutes.

  • AWP Safety: Reduced speeding by 74%, seatbelt violations by 73%, and mobile phone usage by 81%, while improving coaching effectiveness by 75% and coaching timelines by 38%.

  • GardaWorld Security: Cut speeding by 74%, close following by 67%, and rolling stops by 25% across 7,500 drivers at 75 U.S. branches.

  • Roto-Rooter: Used Safety Inbox to pinpoint unsafe behaviors and coach drivers across 2,500 vehicles in 20+ states, with their insurance carrier so impressed by the resulting safety program that they asked Roto-Rooter to present on Samsara's impact at an industry event.

  • Interstate Waste Services: Reduced claims costs by 20%, cut coachable incidents by 15% immediately after activation, saved $240,000 in one year through better asset utilization, and saved $101,000 annually in back-office digitization.

  • West Valley Construction: Reduced safety events by 97% within four months and exonerated 5 drivers in a single month with video evidence.

  • ViaSun Corporation: Improved safety score from 76 to 97 in one month with 86 out of 98 drivers achieving a perfect score of 100 after switching from Motive. Safety Manager Jose Romero stated, "The word 'sue' doesn't scare me anymore. Now we have hard evidence — video, data, GPS. We can prove what really happened."

  • Emery Sapp & Sons: Reduced DOT-reportable incidents by 40% YoY, cut at-fault accidents by 25%, decreased mobile device use by 65%, and improved FMCSA score by 11%.

  • Maxim Crane Works: Saved approximately $13M in 2024 through predictive maintenance, reduced harsh driving events by 94%, speeding by 87%, saved $894,000 in insurance expense reduction with liability claims down 30%, and increased billing for excess equipment usage by 27% year over year.

  • GCI Slingers: Completely eliminated unsafe mobile phone usage and secured a 7% reduction in insurance premiums in 2023.

  • The Rasmussen Group: Saved $2.6M in legal expenses and loss exposure and reduced rolling stop signs by 70%.

  • DeSilva Gates Construction: Reversed 90% of insurance claims against the company with dash cam footage, saved $2.34M annually by preventing equipment delays, and eliminated $60,000 in annual administrative labor.

  • O'Neal Steel: Saved 100 hours every week by reducing time spent reviewing security footage by 92% across 20 sites and 175+ camera streams.

  • Foundation Building Materials: Saved $100K+ from driver exonerations across 4,500 vehicles, 5,500 employees, and 270+ North American branches.

  • Hoskins Equipment: Saved $120,000 in potential replacement costs, protected and managed an $80M equipment fleet, recovered three forklifts in three months, and achieved a 97% decrease in harsh events.

  • Eurovia USA: Decreased mobile usage by 80% and no-seatbelt violations by 76% across a fleet of 2,000+ vehicles.

  • Summit Materials: Decreased preventable safety incidents by 50% and saved $1.8M in fuel costs per year across 400 sites and 4,000 vehicles.

  • Sterling Crane Canada: Saved $3M+ in equipment maintenance, reduced harsh driving by 30%, saved $1.2M in driver downtime, and saved $517K+ in annual maintenance labor.

  • Heniff: Reduced crash-related liabilities by 50% by connecting video visibility both on the road and at terminal locations across 1,800 vehicles and 80 terminal locations.

  • Silvi Materials: Saved an estimated seven figures in litigation costs from a single exoneration, reduced rear-end collisions by 97%, reduced overall safety events by 25%, cut at-fault incidents by 18%, recovered $210,000 in stolen vans and trailers, and increased coached events 4x without adding manager workload.

  • Glazer's Beer & Beverage: Reduced at-fault accident rates by 60% and related costs by 86%, saving several millions in potential claims costs.

  • Crafty: Improved Safety Scores by 5% while increasing total miles driven by more than 20%, achieved a 33% year-over-year reduction in auto claims, and reached the top 10% for fuel efficiency.

  • Aunt Millie's: Identified $1M in potential injury-claim savings through proactive Site Visibility across 60+ locations and 600+ delivery vehicles.

  • KeHE Distributors: Saved thousands of hours in incident investigation time by consolidating dash cam footage, GPS data, and driver workflows into a single platform across 16 distribution centers and 700 drivers.

  • City of Poughkeepsie: Reduced accidents by 25% in four months and proved no-fault in one major accident using AI Dash Cam footage within the first four months of deployment.

  • City of El Paso: Reduced mobile usage events by 80%, reduced accidents by 29%, saved $145,000 in accident-related costs, saved $50,000 in potential legal charges via driver exoneration, recovered a stolen excavator worth $1.3M, and saved approximately $100,000 annually in fuel costs.

  • City of New Orleans: Reduced collision risk by 81%, decreased mobile phone use by 46%, and reduced speeding by 37% across 41 city departments.

  • City of St. Petersburg: Achieved a 23% decrease in harsh driving events and an 11% decrease in speeding events across 5,000 assets and vehicles serving 265,000 citizens.

  • City of Boynton Beach: Reduced overall driver risk factors by 58%, speeding by 17%, harsh braking by 12%, distracted driving by 19%, and policy violations by 10%, and used video evidence to avoid thousands of dollars in false claim payouts.

  • City of Lakeland: Saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in estimated insurance payouts across a collection operation serving 120,000+ residents.

  • Memphis Light, Gas and Water: Achieved a 99% reduction in speeding events over 80 mph and a 20% decrease in preventable incidents, winning the Excellence in Performance Government award.

  • City & County of Denver: Reduced safety events by 94%, harsh driving by 99%, and distracted driving by 98% across 44 divisions and agencies.

  • City of Allentown: Saved $1M+ in taxpayer dollars, reduced incidents by 25%, and decreased citizen complaints by 95%.

  • Road Commission of Kalamazoo County: Achieved $60K in immediate cost savings, exonerated 6 drivers with AI Dash Cams, eliminated a 1 to 2 day lag in back-office processing, and saved approximately 15 hours per month.

  • Garden City Public Schools: Reduced accidents by 87% in 18 months, achieved 8 driver exonerations in a single year, cut stop-arm violations by 80%, improved vehicle uptime by 20%, reduced repair costs by 66%, and delivered $150,000+ in annual savings.

  • Richardson ISD: Resolved 10+ student incidents in five months using AI Multicam video evidence, reduced footage download time from 10 hours to 4 to 8 minutes, and saved $1M in equipment costs by keeping existing cameras through a seamless AI Multicam integration.

  • First Alt: Achieved a 99% reduction in incident investigation time and standardized student safety across 26 states, deploying AI Dash Cams across over 50% of their contracted fleet.

  • Caddo Parish Public Schools: Reduced distracted driving by 26%, harsh events by 15%, speeding by 13%, achieved a 100% decrease in major incidents, and now operate $2M under their previous annual budget.

  • Canyons School District: Reduced incidents by 50%, saved $80,000 in claim payouts through driver exoneration, and spent 75% less time pulling footage for review.

  • Houston ISD: Lowered crashes by 69%, reduced severe speeding events by 10%, and lowered harsh driving events by 12%.

  • Coach USA: Reduced preventable incidents by 92%, cut auto and bodily injury claims by 50%, reduced claim costs by 75%, decreased following-distance events by 50%, and reduced speeding by 35%.

  • Intermex Transportation: Achieved zero insurance claims since deploying AI Multicam, reduced speeding by 39%, and reduced collision risk by 14%.

  • All Aboard America: Increased revenue by 30% through amended pricing, reduced administrative workload by 20%, and saved $1.6M annually across 6 divisions and 1,000+ buses.

  • LAZ Parking: Eliminated 40+ hours of data entry each week, unified siloed data systems across 1,500+ vehicles, and won a record-breaking $370M contract.

  • Grand Isle Shipyard: Reduced distracted driving by 99%, no-seatbelt use by 91%, at-fault accidents by 50%, recovered over $100,000 of stolen equipment, and digitized monthly vehicle inspections reducing inspection time by 83%.

  • SLB: Decreased vehicle accidents by approximately 33% and reduced distracted driving by 99%.

  • Walthall Oil Company: Saved over $5 million in liability exposure using AI Multicam's 360-degree evidence, achieved a 73% drop in max speed events, a 100% improvement in crash events, and achieved a significant reduction in insurance premiums.

  • Certarus: Saved $500,000 in maintenance costs, saved 8,500 hours from digitized billing, and contributed to $100M+ in new contracted revenue.

  • Sprint Waste Services: Saved $500,000 on a single insurance renewal with on-the-spot driver exoneration cited as the primary driver of reduced costs.

9 out of 10 customers say Samsara helped improve safety within their fleet

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