ITF Group saves $4.4M in insurance costs and $4M in fuel costs with Samsara
ITF gains critical real-time visibility across their operations, driving a range of benefits, including significant cost savings as well as a 20% improvement in trailer utilization, a 60% reduction in harsh braking, and more.
Meet ITF Group
A lack of visibility made it difficult to optimize operations
ITF Group is an asset-based third-party logistics provider that offers transportation, logistics, warehousing, and fulfillment solutions. Based in Hazelwood, Missouri, ITF operates across the United States and Canada serving customers in the food and beverage, retail, and e-commerce industries.
As a rapidly growing company, ITF began to feel the strain of not having visibility into critical areas of their operations. "Our business outgrew our ability to track and manage important things like fuel usage, maintenance, and even driver safety," said Sam Burkhan, CEO. "At ITF, one of our top priorities is investing in technology to serve our customers better. We knew it was time to find a solution that could give us real-time insights and help us make smarter decisions."
Burkhan and his team began to look for a new, comprehensive tool that would allow them to manage their fleet more effectively.
Samsara provides real-time data across ITF Group’s business
To tackle these challenges, ITF Group implemented Samsara across their fleet of nearly 400 trucks and 1,600 trailers. "We started small, rolling out Samsara in about 20 of our units, but as we saw the impact of what the technology could do, we scaled up quickly," Burkhan said. "Now, Samsara is a core part of our business that gives us real-time visibility into almost every part of our operations.”
In addition to the technology, Burkhan was impressed with Samsara's customer support during the deployment and beyond. "From the start, Samsara was easy to use and our partnership with the team was excellent," Burkhan said. “Our account managers are energetic and always there to make sure our team is utilizing the full potential of the solution.”
AI Dash Cams help improve coaching and exonerate drivers
For ITF Group, AI Dash Cams have transformed driver behavior and safety across their fleet. "Our safety team now has full visibility into what’s happening on the road," Burkhan said. "It’s helped us reduce a lot of risky behaviors while improving driver accountability."
Samsara has also enabled ITF to deliver more effective driver coaching, with the ability to provide both proactive alerts as well as coaching after an incident occurs. "With Samsara technology, our drivers get an alert if they engage in risky behavior, so they have a chance to self-coach before a behavior becomes a serious issue," Burkhan said. "We can also provide coaching on specific incidents if a driver needs additional guidance. Samsara's coaching tools have been a game-changer in helping us make the roads safer."
In addition, video from AI Dash Cams has played a crucial role in exonerating ITF drivers from false claims. "We've had so many incidents where our drivers have been blamed for accidents, but AI Dash Cams provide real-time video evidence that have helped clear them with law enforcement," Burkhan said. "We've already had 15 cases where Samsara helped exonerate our drivers, which shows how valuable the video evidence can be."
AI Dash Cams drive millions in insurance cost savings
ITF Group faced a number of challenges related to driver safety, such as maintaining safe following distance and drivers not wearing seatbelts. After deploying Samsara AI Dash Cams, ITF Group has experienced a range of benefits, including a 50% improvement in reducing risky behaviors and a 30% reduction in accident rates. These improvements helped lower the company's insurance premiums by $4,500 per truck per year, resulting in $4.4 million in savings on insurance premiums alone over four years.
LEARN HOW
Samsara vehicle telematics improve maintenance and driver safety
In addition to better fuel management, ITF Group can now use Samsara to proactively maintain their fleet. "Before, we had to manually track maintenance schedules using spreadsheets, which was time consuming and inefficient," Burkhan said. "Now, we've configured Samsara so that we receive automated alerts 15 days before an oil change or other maintenance is due. This helps us plan ahead and avoid costly breakdowns."
ITF Group has also been able to use Samsara Vehicle Gateways to improve driver safety even more. The company now has real-time visibility into driver behavior, and has seen significant improvements in driver performance, including a 60% reduction in harsh braking events.
Telematics data has been so impactful in changing driver behavior that ITF has integrated it into their Human Resources system and launched a driver rewards program based on real-time data from Samsara. The program has led to a 20% improvement in driver Safety Scores, as well as increased the company's driver retention rates.
Vehicle Gateways help ITF Group save millions in fuel costs
As they expanded their operations, ITF Group struggled with a lack of real-time visibility into their fleet, missing critical data on fuel usage and truck idling. Now, with Samsara, ITF has been able to make substantial gains in these areas, including improving their fuel efficiency from 6 MPG to up to 7.5 MPG, while reducing idle time to 29%. These improvements have helped the company save $4 million in fuel costs.
LEARN HOWSamsara improves trailer allocation and prevents theft
Along with using Samsara Cargo Monitors, ITF has also been able to use Smart Trailers to improve visibility into trailer utilization and location to serve their customers more effectively. “We can now set up the right trailer pools at customer locations based on their needs, which has significantly improved how we allocate our assets,” Burkhan said. "Before, we didn’t have the data to make informed decisions. Now, we’re maximizing the use of every trailer in our fleet."
With a large fleet dispersed over a large area, trailer theft was another major concern. "Before Samsara, we lost several trailers because thieves disabled our main tracking devices, and we couldn't recover them,” Burkhan said. "Samsara helped us implement unpowered Asset Gateways as a backup, and since then, we haven’t had any theft issues. It's saved us thousands in equipment costs and downtime.”
Improved trailer tracking helps drive utilization and optimization
Before implementing Samsara, ITF Group faced difficulties in tracking and managing its trailer fleet, such as the ability to see if trailers were empty or loaded. "We had to email customers and wait for responses, sometimes overnight, to know if a trailer was empty," Burkhan said. "It created inefficiencies in our dispatching and slowed us down."
Now, the company has real-time visibility into trailer location and cargo status, they have been able to make a number of efficiency gains across their trailer fleet, including a 25% reduction in downtime, a 20% improvement in utilization by reallocating trailers, and a 25% improvement in routing optimization.
LEARN HOW
