How PODS Moving & Storage Built a Culture of Safety
With Samsara, PODS used AI Dash Cams to coach drivers and is on the road to building a world-class safety program.
Meet PODS Moving & Storage
Limited visibility and no real-time data led to less than satisfactory driving
PODS is a national moving and storage company with operations across the United States and Canada. As of early 2022, the company has completed more than six million initial portable moving and storage container deliveries. With customers trusting PODS to transport their belongings, it's important that both property and driver arrive at the customer's destination safely. Before Samsara, PODS used a solution that didn’t provide fleet managers with real-time data, so they had no visibility into the status of their drivers. When drivers were on the road, it was difficult to actively engage them in the moment, coach them on risky behavior, or acknowledge them as their performance improved. And, in the unfortunate event a driver was injured or was involved in an accident, there was no way to provide immediate assistance.
Video-based safety provided rapid feedback and incentives for safe driving
PODS is on the road to building a world-class safety program by installing Samsara’s AI Dash Cams across all of their 1,000+ vehicles. Now, fleet managers have access to HD video of on-the-road conditions, they can provide drivers with coaching directly in the cab. PODS uses what they call the PICNIC approach, which stands for “positive immediate consequences, negative immediate consequences.” In other words, fleet managers provide real-time feedback by calling out both good and unfavorable driving behavior within 48 hours of an event occurring.
To make coaching even more impactful, PODS uses Samsara Safety Scores to quantify driving performance. Prior to Samsara, when drivers received feedback for unsatisfactory driving, they couldn’t see the impact of changing their behavior. Now, they can see their score improve as they adopt safer practices. Drivers aren’t just getting feedback on less than optimal driving behavior either—PODS offers its top drivers a $1,000 quarterly bonus to reward them for hitting goals and practicing safe driving.
Safety program leads to fewer accidents and higher Safety Scores
By replacing its existing solution with Samsara, PODS is able to coach all events within 2 days, down from 11 days. When they first started monitoring driver activity in real time, the PODS team began with as many as 1,400 events per day. As a result of their Samsara-powered safety program, they significantly reduced the number of safety-related events per day and increased their average Safety Score from 89 in 2021 to 94 in 2022.
PODS has a mission to ensure its customers’ belongings, some of which are deeply personal, reach their destination in the same condition they left in. By leveraging Samsara to build a culture of safety, they were able to do just that. “Our customers are trusting us to move or store their belongings. It's emotional. It's their entire lives,” said Francene Scott-Diehl, Enterprise Director of Safety, “It's our job to get their PODS container to their destination safely, and Samsara is helping us do that.”
