Samsara is a well known brand that’s known to help truckers reduce costs and risks with its AI-powered cameras, sensors, and software. In this article, we’ll provide an unbiased look at and review Samsara’s key features, pricing, and customer reviews to determine if it’s the best fit for your fleet.
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Samsara Key Features and Services Overview
Samsara is one of the biggest names in the transportation industry and the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) market. They have over 10,000 customers worldwide and employ over 1,000 staff members between four offices in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The industry giant offers a comprehensive suite of ELD and fleet management solutions from the fleet and transportation industry to manufacturing and infrastructure.
Here’s a list of the key features and services Samara offers:
- Fleet Telematics
- Fleet Management Software
- ELD, Compliance, & Driver Communication
- Safety & Dashcams
- Wireless Sensors
- GPS Fleet Tracking
- Fuel Monitoring & Maintenance Scheduling
- Routing & ELD
Fleet Telematics System Overview
Samsara’s telematics technology makes for a comprehensive fleet management solution. Simple plug-and-play GPS trackers capture every single detail of a vehicle’s activity. That activity includes geofence alerts, dangerous driver behavior, idle time, current traffic, and even security and theft alerts. Asset tracking is also possible 24/7 for vehicles and trailers that are stored remotely.
All of this live information is relayed back to the fleet office using telematics. Real-time driver and vehicle information is displayed on Samsara’s user-friendly dashboard. This in-house software solution streamlines huge quantities of data and makes the information easy to understand for management teams.
That dashboard displays essential live events, but it also records fuel management, includes a maintenance schedule that is always up-to-date, and stores important documents that are archived and easy to find.
Main Features
The Samsara fleet management solution can be customized to each individual team. Displays and information panels can all be edited and re-ordered. The user can also select which reports they would like compiled.
Samsara’s powerful software collates an enormous amount of data and compiles it into easy-to-digest formats. The following are the main Samsara features.
Connected Drivers
This fleet management solution makes for a connected team. Instant communication between field drivers and remote office staff creates an efficient workflow. However, it also allows drivers to timestamp their position and confirm proof of delivery.
Furthermore, the office team can instantly assign their customers the most effective delivery route. Based on live information such as traffic conditions, idle time, and vehicle status, driver routing and job dispatching are simple.
Fleet Safety
Samsara also ensures that drivers using their solutions are protected. Artificial Intelligence (AI) dashcams feed a real-time video stream back to the fleet office, and users can choose how much data they would like to store.
Significant road events are captured and recorded. In the case of collisions or other road incidents, the evidence can be very valuable in court. The dashcams also help with driver safety and coaching.
In-cab voice coaching alerts drivers exhibiting risky behavior, from speeding and cornering to distracted drivers in the cab.
Samsara ELD Compliance
As well as keeping your team unified, safe, and efficient, Samsara keeps your team compliant. ELDs prevent any hours of service (HOS) violations and reliably log driver hours with tamper-proof technology.
Again, this information is entirely visible on the Samsara dashboard. Office staff are immediately notified whenever there is a violation. Drivers will also receive notifications when they are approaching the limit of their safe working hours.
Fuel Management
Fuel is a large expense in a fleet business. This is something way beyond what most fuel card companies offer.
For instance, fleet card companies only offer discounts when you fuel in their in-network gas stations. However, they don’t all help you monitor how the fuel is used on the road. This is where Samsara’s Fuel Usage report comes in with the following features.
- Speed alerts: You’ll receive a notification when the driver exceeds a set speed. This helps you monitor speeding, which usually results in higher fuel consumption.
- Idling alerts: You can monitor how long the engine is running while the vehicle is stationary. This helps in enforcing idling policies to cut down on gas consumption.
- Fuel card integration: You can integrate your fleet fuel card into the system. The supported cards include Fleet One, EFS, Comdata, Fuelman, and WEX. This allows you to monitor and manage fuel from a single platform.
- Vehicle data: The system provides general vehicle data for reporting. This data includes driver name, vehicle name, fuel used, current fuel level, and estimated cost. The system can also calculate the vehicle’s consumption per trip.
Vehicle Maintenance and Driver Management
Even a simple failure, such as a bad battery, can cost you downtime. Things are even worse when your driver lacks basic mechanic skills. Samsara helps you prevent catastrophic failures and downtimes in the following ways:
Virtual Coach
Samsara introduced the Virtual Coach driver training. It’s a new feature announced recently, in November 2023.
It uses artificial intelligence to analyze reports about the driver. It compiles the common mistakes the driver makes and then generates insights that can help the driver avoid these mistakes in the future.
Real-Time Diagnostics
One of the worst things that can happen to a driver on the road is an undetectable problem where the vehicle starts to behave weirdly.
This is where Samsara’s real-time diagnostics come into play:
- The software detects vehicle faults and failures in real-time, just like the Verizon Connect system. For instance, it can proactively detect engine error codes or failing batteries.
- It alerts the fleet management of the detected issues. This helps the fleet manager start organizing rescue services. As a result, the company suffers minimal downtime.
- Apart from reading the vehicle condition, it can also read the cargo condition. For example, it can report cargo temperature to the fleet management. This is important when you are transporting flammable or perishable goods.
Preventive Maintenance Software
Apart from breakdowns, there is the routine vehicle maintenance. Routine maintenance involves changing the engine oil, air filter, and oil filter. For trucks, the maintenance also involves changing worn-out tires and brakes.
The Preventive Maintenance Software helps to keep reports of vehicle maintenance and fleet health. This helps the fleet management know what service is completed on which vehicle. Fleet managers can also determine the best in-network service location depending on the vehicle’s next service mileage if you’re using a fleet card.
Tracking
Besides real-time tracking of the vehicle and driver, monitoring the overall route is important. This data is vital for managing departures and arrivals. This is a service offered by many fleet companies.
However, Samsara’s service is superb, with a stellar rating of 4.9/5.0. The system has an incredible refresh rate of 30 seconds. The Samsara GPS tracking comes with the following features.
- Real-time custom alerts: You can set custom alerts to let you know when the vehicle arrives. For instance, fleet managers can set it to alert them when the vehicle reaches a certain service center.
- Arrival time calculation: This helps you determine which vehicle is best for a given delivery.
- Route optimization: This automatically checks the routes and suggests the best route to take.
- Weather and traffic alerts: This checks the weather and traffic to help drivers avoid routes with bad weather or slow-moving traffic.
- Mileage and Geofencing: This feature alerts you when the vehicle moves outside the set route and if the set mileage is exceeded. This is helpful in case of carjacking.
One thing we wish Samsara included was cost tracking like Motive has. This isn’t a deal breaker, but being able to track various costs within the software would be nice.
Customer Support
Samsara has excellent customer support that you can reach out to in case of issues. Unlike most fleet companies, Samsara offers 24/7 phone service. That means your calls will be answered, even at night. You can also contact the support team through the chatbot.
Usually, the chatbot is the quickest option. The chatbot uses artificial intelligence to read your question and provide the most appropriate guidance. If the chatbot isn’t helpful, you can contact a human assistant. You can also contact the support team through the email if needed.
Pricing
Due to the immense customization of all the features, it’s hard to tell what the Samsara pricing is. Their prices vary depending on the features you choose, the length of the contract, and fleet size.
As a result, you need to fill out the online price form. A sales representative will then contact you with a customized quote. Regardless, you can expect to pay an average subscription fee of $27 to $33 per month per vehicle. The subscription plan applies to the cloud-based software.
For the hardware, you can expect to pay around $99 to $148 as a one-time fee. Hardware purchases also come with a 5-year warranty. Note that the Samsara contract runs for at least three years.
What Makes Samsara a Great Option for New Businesses?
Samsara’s features make it look like a fleet company for big businesses. That is not the case. Samsara accepts even the startup fleet companies with at least three vehicles.
The following are some of the benefits startup companies can enjoy using Samsara.
- Scalability: Samsara offers a set of advanced features for big companies. However, you only choose the features you need during sign-up. This allows you to include more features as the company grows.
- Reporting: Startups might not have the ability to compile reports and analyze the weak points. Samsara’s comprehensive reporting helps in this.
- Customization: The ability to customize Samsara’s features makes it easy to tailor it to the needs of a startup company.
- Compliance: Samsara helps a startup company conform to different legal regulations. This is key if the business doesn’t have a compliance manager.
- Fuel card integration: The ability to integrate the popular fleet cards allows the company to enjoy the benefits of a fleet fuel card without using two different platforms.
Samara Pros | Samara Cons |
---|---|
Automatically optimized route maps for drivers, based on the live traffic situation | Slightly higher pricing plans in comparison with competitors |
24/7 support center with a helpline telephone number, web chat, and email | Lack of callback from Samsara’s sales team |
Free trial option so customers can ‘try before they buy’ | Confusing termination fees and cancellation policies |
Highly detailed, comprehensive, and easy-to-read reports | Incompatible set-up with certain companies and hardware |
Samsara Reviews and Ratings
Samsara receives impressive reviews across the board. Notably, they’re consistently praised for their comprehensive fleet solutions and their time-saving technology.
Of Samsara’s 289 TrustPilot reviews, 65% rate Samsara 5/5. As well as complimenting their robust hardware, simple set-ups, and powerful data, users take time to highlight their positive experience with the Samsara support team.
Capterra reviews paint a similar picture. Fleet managers all over the U.S. praise Samsara’s fleet management solution for taking their fleet ‘to the next level.’ Most of all, they’re impressed with the as-it-happens dashboard, knowing that they have full visibility and control over every asset and driver on the screen.
Some users also mention the smart design of the Samsara driver app. Drivers find it intuitive, easy-to-use, and consider it a time-saving tool.
There are fewer reviews on G2, but these reviews are mostly positive nonetheless. The driver safety features and innovation appear frequently with largely positive reviews. Other users mention the forward-facing dashcams, stating that the evidence proved their drivers innocent in court.
Strangely, Samsara’s reviews on Facebook take a slight dip. Customers complain about a lack of support from the customer service team and a company that doesn’t honor the terms and conditions of its contract.
Generally speaking, Samsara is a fleet management company that is respected for quality and brilliant customer service. TechRadar confirmed this as recently as April 2020: “stellar performance from a trustworthy brand.”
TechRadar took time to highlight the impressive features of Samsara’s software solution compared to other companies:
“It goes way beyond what a normal fleet management app does, offering a wide variety of hardware integrations like integrating dashcams, wireless sensors, and digitization of paper; options which are not available in many other similar companies. The integrations with third-party software also make for a very extensive list.”
Powerful analytics, driver and vehicle safety, and round-the-clock customer service cement the encouraging 4/5 TechRadar review.
- TrustPilot – 3.9/5 (based on 286 reviews)
- Capterra – 4.1/5 (based on 288 reviews)
- G2 – 4.5/5 (based on 28 reviews)
- Facebook – 2.3/5 (based on 9 reviews)
Frequently Asked Questions
What Information Can I Find in the Samsara Mobile Application?
The Samsara mobile app generally aims to provide information to drivers. That means you can’t get comprehensive data such as vehicle performance reports. The driver app helps capture data on the trip and prevent abuse of the service hours.
Mainly, this is because the app is designed to limit distractions on the driver. For more reports and analyses, you need to use the desktop application.
What Does Samsara Track?
Samsara tracks the information related to the vehicle and the driver in real time. This helps the fleet manager track the movement of the vehicle and get arrival estimates. Managers can then relay this information to the customers. Samsara also monitors the condition of the vehicle for possible issues.
Conclusion
Samsara provides both trucking management software and hardware for advanced real-time tracking. The system can detect the vehicle’s speed, idling, and fuel level. It can also detect problems and alert the driver early enough. It also collects data and provides important reports, such as the vehicle’s return on investment.
Website: https://www.samsara.com/fleet
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