Trasporti Romagna unifies systems and saves €240,000 annually with Samsara

"With Samsara, we brought all fleet management into one place. Every process is a lot more straightforward, and the relationship between offices is already better than before.” Michele Dalla Libera, Business Analyst, Trasporti Romagna

Standout benefits

• 75+ hours saved monthly across departments 

• €240,000 annual savings from proactive maintenance and insurance claims

• 11-point improvement in driver safety scores

• 20% reduction in time spent analysing data and creating reports

• 10,000 daily API calls powering real-time dashboards

Disconnected processes and operational blindspots

Trasporti Romagna, one of Italy's leading logistics companies, manages the complex distribution network for major retailers including Aldi and Despar across northern Italy. With 800 vehicles, 600 trailers, and 30 warehouses handling dry, fresh, and frozen goods, the company faced mounting challenges with their fragmented technology infrastructure.

Before Samsara, retrieving a single vehicle's location meant checking three different fleet management systems. Generating reports required manually combining data from multiple Excel files with different formatting. The HR team spent hours processing paper timesheets for 500 drivers daily, while the operations team struggled to maintain cold chain compliance documentation for frozen goods.

"Information was very difficult to aggregate," said Andrea De Marchi, Chief Information Officer at Trasporti Romagna. "Communicating between different offices was difficult for this reason. We had complex processes to do reporting with data getting pulled from different systems."

Building an integrated data ecosystem

Trasporti Romagna partnered with Samsara to create a comprehensive digital transformation strategy. The implementation began with consolidating all telematics data into Samsara's platform, then expanded to include custom integrations with their existing ERP system and data warehouse.

The company now makes 10,000 API calls daily to Samsara, feeding data into a SQL Server database alongside information from their Transport Management System. This integrated approach powers automated PowerBI dashboards that update daily with critical KPIs including vehicle visibility, fuel consumption, idling time, and Hours of Service compliance.

"We conducted an in-depth analysis to understand all the data Samsara could provide," said Michele Dalla Libera, Business Analyst at Trasporti Romagna. "We defined KPIs to monitor, and now we have several reports that are automatically updated."

The integration extends beyond reporting. Trasporti Romagna implemented Environmental Monitors with temperature sensors across their refrigerated fleet, digitising the cold chain verification process. Instead of printing temperature logs for every delivery, drivers now provide supermarkets with digital Excel files directly from Samsara, ensuring compliance while eliminating paperwork.

Measurable impact across operations

Trasporti Romagna’s integrated approach has paid immediate dividends. Asset tracking alone saves 30 hours weekly previously spent locating trailers and equipment – translating to €3,000-4,000 in annual savings. In one instance, the company recovered a €1,000 insulated container in a remote Alpine location using Asset Gateways, preventing a total loss. 

Safety metrics showed significant improvement, with the average driver safety score rising from 80 to 91. Trasporti Romagna achieved this by implementing a structured coaching process using dashcam footage and monthly performance reports. "We look closely at harsh braking events and accidents," said Dalla Libera. "Every driver and manager also receives monthly reports showing their eco-driving score and fuel consumption compared to other drivers on the same routes." With insight to keep everyone accountable, the average vehicle idling time has been reduced from 60 to 45 minutes daily across the fleet. 

Cloud-accessible dashcam footage has not just improved driver coaching, but insurance claim processes as well. Clear, real-time video evidence exonerates drivers in disputes that previously would have been settled unfavourably – saving €110,000 annually.

Proactive maintenance planning, enabled by integrating Samsara data with their ERP system, prevents unplanned downtime worth €130,000 yearly. The system calculates when vehicles need standard maintenance based on actual kilometres travelled, allowing the workshop to order parts in advance and minimise vehicle downtime.

"With the introduction of Samsara, kilometre tracking is now automated, significantly reducing processing time, data entry, and errors," said De Marchi. The automated payroll process alone saves 15-20 hours monthly for the HR team.

Building on digital capabilities for growth

Trasporti Romagna continues to expand their use of Samsara's platform, such as implementing route optimisation to compare planned routes from their ERP against actual driver routes and identify unnecessary detours that waste fuel. They're also developing an automated fuel theft detection system to monitor their 40 million litres of annual fuel consumption – potentially preventing losses of up to €500,000 yearly from even 1% theft.

Future plans include full deployment of the Samsara Driver App to eliminate remaining paper forms and create official communication channels replacing WhatsApp. Drivers will conduct digital vehicle inspections at clock-in and clock-out, photographing any damage and submitting forms directly to the workshop – solving accountability issues when damage occurs between shifts.

With Samsara as their digital foundation, Trasporti Romagna has evolved from managing disconnected systems to leveraging real-time insights that drive operational excellence across their entire network. Now, the company is well positioned to continue innovating processes and drive business growth for the future.