france, Transportation Logistics

"The safety of our drivers is an absolute priority. On-board technologies such as dashcams now make it possible to act very effectively to reduce road accidents and protect drivers, and we consider it irresponsible not to use this tool. The results are indisputable: in the space of a year, Samsara dashcams have enabled us to reduce the number of claims on our fleet by more than 80%.”

Julien Normand, Director of Trans Proxim Froid

Standout benefits:

• Over 80% reduction in the number of accidents in 1 year

• Improved quality of service and control of the cold chain

• Optimisation of fleet maintenance 

• Installation of solutions 2x fast

Refrigerated transport: A demanding profession

Based in Franche-Comté and capitalising on more than 25 years' experience, Trans Proxim Froid was formed in 2010 from the merger of Trans Frais 25 and Normand JL. Specialising in temperature-controlled refrigerated transport, Trans Proxim Froid supplies fresh and frozen food products to professional customers ranging from small grocery shops to supermarkets, restaurants, local authorities, cheese dairies and seasonal farmers. The company currently employs more than 40 people and has sales of over €3.7 million. 

Relying on a fleet of 31 refrigerated vehicles, Trans Proxim Froid delivers some 360 tonnes of fresh and frozen products every week - representing almost 115,000 deliveries and more than 1.2 million kilometres travelled every year. 

"Temperature-controlled transport is a demanding business, in which quality and reliability are paramount to guarantee compliance with the cold chain, delivery times and customer confidence. This quality of service relies to a large extent on the professionalism of our drivers and on our ability to have the data we need to manage our operations and our fleet effectively", emphasises Julien Normand, Director of Trans Proxim Froid. "In order to be ever more efficient and effective for our customers, while offering our drivers a working tool that is both modern and guarantees their safety, we decided a few years ago to equip our fleet with the latest generation of on-board technology".

Why Samsara?

Having previously used a geolocation tool that had reached certain limits in terms of functionality and accuracy, Trans Proxim Froid turned to Samsara's solutions. 

"Samsara is much more comprehensive than the competition, particularly in terms of the quality and accuracy of the data provided, as well as the functional scope of the solutions. Samsara makes it possible, for example, to monitor the journeys and fuel consumption of each vehicle with perfect precision. Our drivers also have very simple functionalities for touring their vehicle and taking photos to optimise maintenance and repairs", comments Julien Normand.   

"Samsara is also very easy to install. We can equip our fleet ourselves, without needing to use a technical service provider. For a complete installation of the box, camera and temperature gauge, 30 minutes is all we need. With other solutions, an external service provider would have needed between 30 minutes and 1 hour. This represents substantial savings, especially as we regularly replace our vehicles so that we always have a recent fleet," adds Julien Normand.

Geolocation to ensure compliance with the cold chain and quality of service

Thanks to the accuracy of the data provided by the Samsara platform, Trans Proxim Froid has significantly improved its responsiveness and ability to inform its customers in real time. "When a customer calls us to find out when he will be delivered, we no longer need to call our driver and delay the information: we can respond immediately to our customer with very precise information. This contributes greatly to their satisfaction and to our company's image of professionalism", comments Julien Normand. 

This ability to inform customers quickly and accurately is also very useful in the event of unforeseen circumstances, such as roadworks leading to detours and extended delivery times. In such situations, the Samsara platform can automatically send an alert to the customer. 

The cold chain is another particularly strategic aspect. For a company like Trans Proxim Froid, compliance with the cold chain and the ability to control the temperature of deliveries from end to end is crucial to customer satisfaction and confidence. The Samsara platform enables the temperatures of refrigerated cases to be recorded automatically and continuously, thus avoiding any manual checks. It also provides customers with clear temperature history reports throughout the transport process.

80% drop in road accidents thanks to on-board cameras

Trans Proxim Froid also wanted to give priority to protecting its drivers and reducing the number of accidents involving its fleet of vehicles. To complement Samsara's geolocation and telematics tools, Trans Proxim Froid decided to install external and in-cab cameras on all its vehicles. 

"We very quickly noticed the positive effects on the quality of our drivers' driving. This has resulted in a radical reduction in the number of claims, but also in our liability rate," sums up Julien Normand. 

In 2022, Trans Proxim Froid recorded 35 claims and accidents. This volume weighed not only on the company's fleet insurance premiums, but also on the overall quality of the working environment for employees and on vehicle maintenance and repair costs. By the end of 2023 - just over a year after the Samsara dashcams were installed - the number of claims had fallen to 6!

 "Whether it's a minor fender-bender or a more serious accident, the safety of our drivers is an absolute priority. In-vehicle technologies such as dashcams now make it possible to act very effectively to reduce the number of road accidents and protect drivers, and we believe that it would be irresponsible not to use this tool. The results are indisputable: in the space of a year, Samsara dashcams have enabled us to reduce the number of claims on our fleet by more than 80%," concludes Julien Normand.