Protecting profitability in a tough market—amidst economic uncertainty and tight margins—is a top priority for physical operations. At around 40% of fleet OPEX, fuel cost can make or break operators. This is where a lack of connected data across the fuel lifecycle presents substantial challenges for organizations. Even a small fluctuation can be the difference of profitability or not. 

At Samsara, we believe the answer lies in comprehensive, actionable data powered by continuous innovation. That's why we're excited to announce powerful new tools that provide industry-leading end-to-end visibility, connecting the dots across your fuel operations. These insights empower organizations to move beyond reacting—proactively pinpointing savings opportunities, detecting and combatting fraud, eliminating waste, and taking decisive control of fuel spend. 

Get fuel at the best price with Fuel Price Insights

Ensuring drivers consistently purchase fuel at the best possible price is a constant challenge. Even over a short distance fuel prices can vary by over $1—a seemingly small difference that adds up quickly. Managers often lack the timely data needed to effectively coach drivers on making the most economic choices. Without clear visibility into where fuel is bought versus nearby alternatives, potential savings are often missed. Samsara's Fuel Price Insights provide the clarity needed to identify these opportunities and coach driver purchasing behavior.

• Fuel price visibility and coaching: View driver fuel purchase locations using an integrated overlay of nearby fuel prices, identifying opportunities to coach drivers towards lower-cost fueling options. 

• Leverage preferred pricing options: Effectively guide drivers on when to utilize preferred fuel providers with company discounts or opt for in-yard fueling, uncovering significant opportunities to lower overall purchase costs. 

Minimize waste with new tools to coach and recognize driver behaviors

Excessive idling burns fuel unnecessarily, increases emissions, and negatively impacts the bottom line. Differentiating between truly unproductive idling from necessary operational idling (like PTO usage) can be difficult without the right context. Changing this behavior effectively relies on timely intervention and consistent coaching workflows—not just reports—something often hindered by disconnected systems. 

Samsara's Driver Efficiency Report already provides admins with a comprehensive view to track and coach driver behavior across several key factors. Building on this, our newest advanced idling features offer unparalleled precision to provide greater insights that pinpoint truly unproductive idling. Real-time driver alerts and streamlined coaching combat fuel waste.

• Advanced insights help eliminate unproductive idling: Use custom rules and analyze contextual factors–such as location, outdoor temperature, duration, and PTO status–within enhanced reports, enabling greater fuel savings. With Samsara’s real-time reporting, Gordon Food Service  reduced idling rates from as high as 17% to under 5%, leading to $2.5 million in total fuel savings last year.

• Weather-aware in-cab idling alerts stop unproductive idling in the moment: Real-time alerts based on customizable triggers such as outdoor temperature, idle event duration, PTO, and geofence, deliver immediate in-cab audio alerts, prompting drivers to turn off their vehicles. 

• Unified coaching to drive fuel efficient and safe behavior: Add specific idling events to established coaching workflows, addressing them alongside safety and compliance issues to achieve lasting behavior change.

• Automated driver recognition and engagement: Make recognition effortless with automated tracking and easily send personalized Kudos directly within the Driver App. This helps boost engagement and foster a culture of appreciation and accountability for fuel efficiency.

• Enterprise-grade benchmarks demonstrate your performance against peers: Identify opportunities for improvement across important efficiency and safety metrics relative to peer performance. Track your team’s progress on these metrics over time to measure the success and quantify the ROI of your fuel and safety programs.

Take action with fuel theft and fraud detection

Fuel theft through siphoning and fraudulent fuel card usage represent significant, direct losses, with 5%-10% of a fleet’s annual fuel consumption estimated to be lost due to theft or misallocation. Yet these activities often go unnoticed due to a lack of real-time visibility and data correlation. Without immediate alerts for suspicious fuel level drops or automated ways to verify fuel purchases against vehicle presence and actual fuel level changes, organizations remain vulnerable to these costly issues. Samsara's fuel theft and fraud detection features provide the critical monitoring needed to identify suspicious activity quickly and take action.

• Fuel theft detection alert: Detect potential fuel theft from siphoning with real-time alerts triggered by sudden drops (5%+) in fuel level. These alerts provide admins the specific time and location details required for immediate investigation.

• Fuel purchase fraud detection: Identify potential fuel fraud with configurable fuel level rise detection, now available alongside vehicle proximity for fuel purchases. A new map visualization provides additional context by plotting unverified transaction locations.

  *This requires Fuel Card integration or fuel receipt upload to cross-reference transaction data with vehicle telematics.

• AI-powered receipt capture: Enable drivers to submit fuel purchases via a predefined form, with AI automating the data capture into Fuel Purchase Reports to eliminate manual errors. Admins can leverage Fuel Purchase Fraud Detection for fuel purchases without a fuel card integration or when a company does not use a fuel card. 

Fuel Compliance 

Staying compliant with diverse fuel tax regulations, such as IFTA, presents a significant operational challenge. Manually gathering the precise data, performing accurate calculations to maximize eligible tax credits or exemptions, and meeting strict reporting deadlines is time-intensive and also prone to costly errors or missed savings.

Automating these complex compliance workflows is key to saving time, reducing risk, and maximizing tax savings across different jurisdictions. Liberty Energy provides a powerful example, having saved $10M per year in fuel taxes by integrating Samsara telematics data with their tax service provider.

• Maximize fuel tax savings:  Samsara's automated reporting helps simplify compliance for fleets in Canada and the United States. Accurate jurisdiction reporting streamlines IFTA compliance and helps organizations maximize credits to minimize fuel taxes. 

Take control of your total fuel spend

Effectively managing fuel requires comprehensive visibility and control across the entire lifecycle. Samsara provides an integrated suite of tools designed to help you optimize every stage––from purchase insights and idling reduction to proactive theft and fraud detection. Gain the actionable data needed to make smarter decisions, drive significant savings, and protect your profitability.

Ready to transform your fuel management? Talk to your Samsara representative today to try these new fuel features.