How Collard Group halved office admin hours and saved over £130k annually with Samsara

“The more we put into Samsara, the more we get out. Everything feels like it’s given to you on a silver platter.”  Lee Troddyn, Transport Manager, Collard Group

Standout benefits

• £2,000 weekly savings in travel time payments 

• 50% reduction in back office administration hours

• 30% reduction in downtime for vehicles and drivers

• 5-year low for open insurance claims

• 33% reduction in accidents among camera-equipped vans

Limited data and operational bottlenecks

As one of the largest privately owned waste management companies in Southern England, Collard Group operates a diverse 280-vehicle fleet across nine depots in three counties. Before implementing Samsara, Collard Group faced significant operational challenges with their non-HGV fleet. 

"We had no visibility before," said Hayleigh Russell, Group Transport Compliance Manager. "The previous system wasn't linked into on-board diagnostics, so it was very much ignition off, ignition on, and would just track where the vehicle went."

This limited visibility created inefficiencies throughout their operation, particularly for their demolition teams. The manual process of tracking driver hours and travel time was extremely time-consuming, taking managers two to three days to compile the necessary data for payroll.

Collard first encountered Samsara at a Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme conference. “There were lots of alternatives being showcased, but I was impressed with the demo and what Samsara had to offer,” said Russell, “So I invited them to show us what they could do for our fleet from a safety perspective.”

Cutting costs with custom reporting

To address their lack of tracking insight, Collard Group approached Samsara to create a custom integration with Google Maps that transformed how they manage travel time payments for drivers. This industry-first solution created an automatic and accurate system for tracking driver movements.

The custom integration uses geo-fencing linked with Google Maps to precisely calculate travel time from point A to point B. This eliminates opportunities for time inflation that existed with their previous system.

"The demolition team calculated that it's saving about £2,000 a week in payments for travel time," said Russell. "Previously we were having blind spots with no signals. With this, there is no tricking the system."

This automation has dramatically reduced administrative workload while improving accuracy. "It's a report that's automatically generated, so you've probably reduced someone's workload by 50-60%, which is huge in man hours," said Lee Troddyn, Transport Manager at Collard Group.

What once took managers 2-3 days to compile has been reduced to just 4-5 hours, saving approximately 20 hours of phone calls monthly and freeing staff to focus on other high-value tasks.

Fuel efficiency has also improved significantly since implementing Samsara. From January 2023 to January 2025, average pickup MPG increased by 27%, saving £5,550, while van MPG more than doubled, rising 173% and saving £29,000. Despite adding new vehicles during this period, Collard achieved substantial savings from their annual fuel bill.

Putting safety first

Collard Group is also progressively rolling out Samsara AI Dash Cams across their fleet, starting with new vehicles and planning for complete coverage over time. This phased approach helps manage the cultural shift required when introducing driver-facing technology.

“Anything new we have to approach softly," said Russell. "It’s about changing the culture one step at a time. And with technology, it's keep up or get left behind."

The safety impact has been immediate. Collard has seen a 33% reduction in accidents with vans equipped with cameras. The Safety Inbox feature allows managers to monitor harsh driving events, mobile phone usage, and seatbelt compliance daily, enabling both corrective coaching and positive reinforcement.

"A big plus is that it is so easy to tell drivers not just when they’ve done something wrong with evidence, but also praise them for the good," said Troddyn. 

This improved safety approach has contributed to Collard Group's insurance claims reaching a five-year low, with the ability to report incidents immediately rather than discovering them days or weeks later.

From reactive to proactive maintenance

For Collard Group's in-house maintenance team, Samsara has transformed their approach to vehicle servicing through deeper insight into diagnostic visibility.

"Workshop supervisors can jump onto Samsara and start pre-checking faults," said Troddyn. "We can now see when vehicles are due a service before they even come in thanks to the fault codes."

The team is now able to pre-order parts and prepare for vehicle servicing, streamlining workshop operations and improving efficiency. The maintenance schedule is managed through regular reports sent to planners across all depots, ensuring compliance with their Operator's License requirements.

"It streamlined the workshop as well," said Troddyn. "When vehicles come in, we've pre-ordered parts and know it's due a service." Being able to proactively service vehicles has reduced vehicle downtime by approximately 30%, keeping assets on the road and running smoothly.

Keeping sight of critical assets

As a waste management company with ambitious environmental goals, Collard Group has leveraged Samsara's Asset Tags to track skips, trailers, and specialised containers, including those for hazardous materials like asbestos.

"The asset tags have worked really well," said Troddyn. "Knowing where the asbestos bins are that are all clearly marked and labeled, it's just one click of a button, and we know where the assets are."

This visibility serves multiple purposes beyond simple location tracking. It helps safeguard valuable assets from theft, creates accountability for hazardous waste handling, and optimises asset utilisation.

Collard Group are now able to manage how long assets remain at customer sites, preventing equipment from being underutilised. "We try not to let our skips stay on sites for more than two weeks, because that's a product that could have been moved and we could have charged somebody else for it," said Russell.

Comprehensive and precise asset tracking has contributed to Collard Group's impressive environmental management, with 507,684 tonnes of total waste processed across all material recycling facilities and 97% waste diversion from landfill achieved in 2024.

Raising industry standards

Collard Group plans to continue expanding their use of Samsara, with work in progress to integrate fuel card monitoring through a custom report that will help prevent fuel theft. "When it goes live, it'll be a game changer," said Troddyn. "That'll save a lot of time for us going through invoices and checking the distance between mileage inputs.”

Collard Group also see Samsara playing a key role in supporting industry certifications, including their FORS Gold accreditation (maintained for 8 consecutive years) and ISO 14001 environmental management standards to position themselves as an innovative industry leader.