From blind spots to big savings: How Vp Brandon Hire Station saved £192,000 with Samsara

“Samsara has totally transformed the way in which occupational road risk is managed within our business. The difference between this system and the previous system is night and day.” Antony Draper, Director of HSEQ, Brandon Hire Station

Standout Benefits

• £192,000 saved annually in accident costs–a 40% reduction

• 93% reduction in mobile phone usage while driving

• 88% reduction in speeding incidents

• 63% reduction in harsh driving events

• 10-point improvement in average driver safety score (83 to 93) within 8 months

Operational blind spots

With over 50 years in the equipment hire industry, Vp Brandon Hire Station have grown to manage more than 500 vehicles across 125 locations throughout the UK. Despite this scale, the company was struggling to build upon safety initiatives due to a lack of structure and insight.

The previous vehicle monitoring system created a dangerous blind spot: only activating cameras when vehicles experienced a harsh event exceeding certain G-force thresholds. This meant critical safety concerns—drivers using mobile phones, not wearing seatbelts, or driving while distracted—went completely undetected.

"The perception before Samsara was that we didn't have a problem," said Draper. "But that couldn't have been further from the truth."

Starting with truth

Vp Brandon Hire Station took a cautious approach to implementing their new safety technology. Rather than immediately activating all of Samsara's coaching features, they began with a three-month benchmarking phase, quietly monitoring driver behavior without intervention.

"We turned the in-cab alerts off initially and just let drivers forget the system was there," said Susan Moore, Road Risk Manager. "You need data to influence change, and that was our outset. We needed to know exactly where we stood."

When the benchmark data came in, it revealed startling insights. Their previous system had reported roughly nine mobile phone usage incidents monthly across the entire fleet. Samsara detected 449.

"We wanted the absolute truth about our safety performance," said Draper. "When you know where you stand, you can achieve more tangible, long-term benefits."

Building trust through transparency

With baseline metrics established, the implementation team developed six different training packages tailored to various roles within the organisation. Everyone from business directors to drivers received training specifically designed for their needs and responsibilities.

Anticipating potential resistance to in-cab coaching, the team distributed FAQs and audio samples of alerts before activation. They emphasised that Samsara would function as a "guardian angel" rather than a punitive monitoring system to ensure drivers understood the technology was there to protect them.

The transparent approach fostered immediate acceptance. Despite having a workforce where approximately 60% of employees had over ten years of service—some with more than 40 years—pushback was minimal.

The data to drive safety improvements

Vp Brandon Hire Station’s patient approach paid off in both safety performance and the company’s bottom line. 3rd party accident costs plummeted from £522,000 in 2023 to £330,000 in 2024—a 40% reduction that saved Brandon Hire Station £192,000 in just one year. 

The overall decrease in safety events played a key role in minimising incidents and associated costs. Through AI detection and personalised driver coaching, the company saw a 78% reduction in inattentive driving, a 90% reduction in following distance violations, a 80% reduction in camera obstruction and a 93% reduction in mobile phone usage. 

As a result, average driver safety scores improved from 83 to 93 within 8 months. Even more impressive, 92 drivers now achieve perfect 100 scores, and 404 out of 630 drivers score 95 or above. Twenty percent of drivers have never appeared on a safety report—the gold standard the company aims to expand.

"We made safety a competitive advantage," said Draper. "Our month-end reports include health, safety, environment, quality, audit, and road risk components largely driven by the safety score. There's huge competition around these metrics now. It's not just a management tool; it provides KPIs for the entire business to improve."

For drivers who struggle with safety scores, Brandon Hire Station implemented a "Responsible Driving Programme." Anyone scoring below 80 receives a personalised coaching plan focused on specific improvement areas—highlighting their commitment to developing drivers rather than simply enforcing punitive measures.

Operational gains beyond safety

While minimising risk was the primary goal, Vp Brandon Hire Station discovered that the improvements in driver behaviour directly translated into fuel efficiency gains. The fleet now achieves an average fuel economy of 29.2 MPG—roughly double the industry average of 14.5 MPG for Ford Transit flatbeds. Idling time has fallen to 10.7% which is less than half the industry benchmark of 25.1%, and the fleet maintains an average eco-driving score of 86 out of 100 over 12 months.

From the next operating year, every driver will be set a target for both eco and safe driving scores and will be bonused on this performance—further incentivising sustainable driving habits.

Vp Brandon Hire Station also leveraged data from Samsara to develop custom Tableau dashboards that visualise utilisation rates by vehicle type, branch, and region. These are complete with color-coding metrics to easily identify improvement opportunities and optimise deployment moving forward.

"This data helps us maximise efficiency during high-demand periods like festivals," said Draper. "Instead of renting additional vehicles, we can identify underutilised assets in nearby regions and redeploy them temporarily."

The company has also implemented a region-based colour coding system in the Samsara platform, making it easy to identify when vehicles are operating outside their designated areas. When a vehicle is spotted outside its region, the team can investigate why and implement preventative measures, such as transferring orders to different locations to reduce unnecessary long journeys that consume delivery slots and put pressure on other drivers.

AI-powered insights at everyone's fingertips

Another critical component of Vp Brandon Hire Station's transformation has been the deployment of Samsara Assistant, which democratised access to data and insights across the organisation.

"Samsara Assistant acts like a personal onboarding coach for new team members, which means they are ramped up and delivering more for the company, faster," said Draper.

This AI-powered tool was rolled out to all branches shortly after implementation and has empowered the workforce. Giving branches the opportunity to learn the platform in greater detail and use the AI assistant as an internal search engine for daily tasks and queries. 

"Assistant allows us to proactively manage our fleet, ensuring issues—whether vehicle fault codes, or driver performance—are identified early so we can minimise impact on the business," said Draper. "The best part is local teams can access this information and take immediate action, without having to wait for an org-wide analysis first."

The road ahead

Vp Brandon Hire Station are now looking to expand their partnership with Samsara, including plans to fully deploy the Driver App for virtual coaching and implement Connected Forms for comprehensive vehicle inspections. The company's success has even influenced their sister companies, with Vp MEP Hire beginning their own Samsara rollout and two other sister companies exploring implementation.

"What we've learned is that when you have trusted data, you can make confident decisions," said Draper. "Samsara is the enabling tool that highlights inefficiencies, areas of focus, and priorities moving forward. It's transformed how we approach safety across our entire operation."