Lack of proactive maintenance for generators and other equipment impacted emergency preparedness and created potential public safety concerns. 

Monroe County, Florida, sits at the southernmost end of the state. Home to just over 80,000 people, the County covers nearly 1,700 islands that make up the Florida Keys, including Key West—which is also the County's largest city—and also contains the Everglades. 

Florida's geography presents unique challenges for Monroe County. A narrow 120-mile, two-lane highway runs the length of the Keys, and any incident along the route can impact services up or down the chain of islands. "A loose sailboat or even a bird can knock out power to thousands of residents on either side of the incident," said Bill Uptegrove, Operations Manager, Fleet Management. 

As backup, the County operates more than 60 generators to power fire stations, toll booths, and other important infrastructure along the route. "If a generator goes out it's more than an inconvenience," Uptegrove said. "If a fire station can't get enough power to get a truck out to respond to an accident, it can impact public safety."

Keeping the County's generators operational is critical to public safety and powering critical infrastructure for communities across the Keys. Uptegrove and his team needed a solution that would allow them to proactively maintain their generators—as well as County vehicles and other assets—to help them keep citizens safe, as well as help drive greater efficiency and cost savings.

Superior technology and hands-on customer support with Samsara.

Prior to Samsara, Monroe County was using an asset tracking solution for their generators, but the provider had equipment supply issues and poor customer service. After evaluating several new providers, Monroe County chose Samsara. "We were very impressed with Samsara's technology, and the customer support really set them apart," Uptegrove said. "Samsara went above and beyond to set us up for success." 

Initially, Monroe County deployed Samsara Asset Gateways and Vehicle Gateways in the County's Department of Fleet Management, but other departments quickly adopted Samsara as well. "The Department of Solid Waste was exploring a different solution to monitor illegal dumping, but they realized they could use Samsara to do so," Uptegrove said. "The fact that we can use one solution across our departments helps us simplify and streamline our operations."

As part of the implementation, Samsara also helped the Monroe County team create several reports to track asset performance, as well as track data for reports required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). "We get a lot of hurricane and severe storm activity, and filing timely, accurate FEMA reports is critical to our emergency response," Uptegrove said. "With Samsara, we can generate reports that show where crews were, how far they traveled, and how long they were there, which is essential to getting reimbursed quickly."

Better visibility into equipment organization wide, helping to save time and lower costs.

With Samsara, Monroe County has gained a variety of benefits across their operations, including greater visibility into generator status. Now, the County can proactively maintain their generators to prevent unnecessary downtime while improving response time to outages by 15%. "We can use a Samsara dashboard to see generator battery levels or pinpoint outages, which makes it much easier and faster to direct our crews to where they need to go," said Uptegrove. With Samsara, the County has also been able to reduce time spent driving to maintain generators by 25%, helping to save on fuel and labor costs. 

Monroe County is also using Samsara to easily track and find other assets in the aftermath of severe weather, or when equipment is misplaced. "Hurricanes can be chaotic, and it was difficult to know where some of our assets ended up. With Samsara, we can find assets at any time," Uptegrove said. "The cost of some of our equipment has more than doubled in recent years, so it's even more critical to keep close tabs on what we already have."

In addition, Monroe County has been able to monitor their vehicles more effectively and save thousands of dollars in maintenance costs. "It can cost $1700 to tow one of our large trucks, so preventative maintenance is a big cost saver," Uptegrove said. "With Samsara, we know when a check engine light comes on, so we can bring in a truck before it breaks down, and a $3000 repair ends up being a simple maintenance check that's much less expensive." 

Vehicle location data, as well as Samsara AI Dash Cams, are also helping Monroe County serve the public more effectively and exonerate drivers if disputes arise. "If a customer calls to say that we didn't come by to do a waste pickup, we can pull up data to prove that we were at a site for more than an hour clearing waste," Uptegrove said. "We pride ourselves on providing outstanding service and being responsive, and with Samsara, we can show how we're delivering on that mission."