Positive Recognition for safe, compliant, and fuel efficient driving: A new era for driver engagement

As we enter 2025, driver retention in fleets remains a top concern. In its latest report on critical issues in the trucking industry, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) foundthat the ongoing driver shortage ranked within the top 10 concerns of trucking executives and professional drivers.

Driver turnover also remains stubbornly high-the American Trucking Associations has surveyed carriers and found driver turnover rates as high as 94%for large truckload carriers, and an average 79% turnover rate for smaller carriers. Moreover, ATRI has found that the average driver retention bonus has risen by 90%over the past four years to $1,272.

To counter these trends, many fleets are investing in safety-focused retention strategies, including video-based safety tools. However, technology is only one part of a successful safety program. Effective safety managers know that strong relationships with drivers are essential, and driver recognition is a critical part of building these connections.

Create a positive safety culture and retain drivers with Samsara Positive Recognition

At Samsara, we've spent years working with the world's most sophisticated fleets to improve the safety of their operations. We have partnered with DHLto reduce accident costs by 50%, have helped Home Depotreduce claims costs by 65%, and have worked with the City of Memphisto reduce distracted driving by 70%.

We've observed firsthand that the safest fleets are able to deliver a consistently great driver experience without creating extra work for supervisors. Simple tactics like being transparent about the goals of a safety program, demonstrating why safety should matter to drivers, and recognizing safe driving at team meetings go a long way. They help drivers buy into safety programs, lead to safer driving, and can even make it easier to hire or reduce turnover. In fact, some of our customers, including DHL and AWP Safety, have seen turnover decline 50% or more by creating a positive culture of safety in their operations.

We've consolidated this domain expertise and our technology into Positive Recognition, a new capability to recognize great driving across safety, HOS compliance, and fuel efficiency. Part of Samsara Intelligence, Positive Recognition makes it easy for fleets to recognize three types of great driving:

• Streaks: Gain automatic visibility into drive time accumulated without incidents. Track streaks for safe speed (stayed under posted speed limit), focused driving (no mobile distractions or inattentive driving events), HOS compliant (no HOS violations), and fuel friendly (no idling events).

• Milestones: Set streak goals for your organization and automatically send badges of recognition when they're achieved.

• Most improved: Identify drivers who have improved their safety scores and send encouragement.

By focusing on these performance areas, Positive Recognition can help deliver a range of benefits, including:

Improve driver buy-in and engagement while reducing turnover. Researchhas found that well-recognized employees are 45% less likely to leave their jobs. With Positive Recognition, organizations can proactively reward good performance to boost driver buy-in for safety programs and help increase driver retention.

Samsara's large data set enables our AI technology to proactively identify streaks of good driver behavior-including safe speed, focused driving, HOS compliant, and fuel-friendly driving-and highlights drivers who have improved their safety scores. Safety managers and coaches can use this information to identify and encourage drivers to continue hitting performance goals and send recognition to them directly. Moreover, drivers can track their active streaks and progress towards their next milestone in the Samsara Driver App.

Provide more frequent and credible recognition while reducing supervisor burden with AI. Safety managers and coaches often face many competing priorities, and recognizing drivers for good performance can quickly slip to the bottom of a to-do list. Effective programs require consistent, timely, and accurate driver recognition.

Positive Recognition automatically notifies drivers of good behavior when they've reached key milestones based on driver performance measured across the Samsara platform. Moreover, Positive Recognition helps ensure the right drivers are recognized at the right times, making your coaching more credible and relevant.

Personalize driver recognition to strengthen relationships. Companies with employees who are more engaged report48% fewer safety incidents than those with low engagement. One way to drive that engagement is by fostering strong working relationships between safety managers and coaches, and drivers.

With Positive Recognition, organizations can do just that, giving safety managers and coaches the option to personalize kudos with custom messages. Messages that are directed to specific drivers with recognition for specific positive behaviors and achievements can deepen relationships and reinforce good driving.

Gain a complete view of driver performance. Drivers perform better with coaching, but incomplete feedback across different focus areas can reduce coaching effectiveness. For example, if a driver is only coached or recognized for safety, they can miss out on other improvements they could make to consistently hit their goals for compliance.

With Positive Recognition, fleet managers can get a comprehensive view of driver performance across three priority areas: safety, HOS compliance, and fuel efficiency. A single, holistic view of performance not only allows organizations to deliver consistent coaching, but also enables managers to review a greater volume of performance data in less time.

Learn more about how Samsara can help you engage and retain drivers

Researchhas shown that 20% of the riskiest drivers are responsible for 80% of all accidents. While it's always important to address unsafe behaviors, fleets also need to take proactive steps to recognize the majority of their drivers who are safe and perform well. With Positive Recognition, you can use AI to create a positive culture around safety and accountability, helping to engage and retain one of your most valuable resources, your drivers.

To learn more about how to make your fleet safer, read our guide, Best Practices for Building a Video Based Safety Program.

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