Samsara Inc. recently announced that USIC, the provider of underground utility damage prevention, selected its solution to digitize its operations and enable improvements in safety, efficiency, and sustainability.

USIC leverages Samsara Video-Based Safety, Panic Button, and Vehicle Telematics to enhance its safety program and gain efficiencies that can lead to timely service for its customers and reduced costs for the business. 

According to a release, 20 million miles of underground infrastructure connect the United States to the power, water, and communication services essential to every home and business. More than 12,000 USIC field service technicians operate across the nation, marking these utility lines to both protect and maintain this critical infrastructure and ensure public safety. USIC completes about 84 million projects annually, and demand for its services is growing as the U.S. population rises in rural regions and the government invests in new infrastructure projects. 

“USIC is accelerating the massive infrastructure expansion happening from coast to coast. Bridging the digital divide by bringing Internet services to rural communities, establishing new underground power lines so the lights stay on when a storm surges, and much more – this is all important work for our nation’s future,” said Richard Batelaan, Chief Operating Officer at USIC. “With the real-time data we receive from Samsara, we can do this work safely and effectively. Samsara’s technology is essential to keeping our technicians out of harm’s way and delivering the services our customers need to keep their communities running.” 

Protecting Thousands of Technicians with a Technology-Driven Safety Program

USIC is on a journey to reach zero safety incidents and zero injuries. Its focus is eliminating at-risk behaviors, strengthening its Safe-Life culture, and equipping employees with new training and tools.

Samsara Video-Based Safety enables USIC to better support and coach its technicians on the road through real-time incident detection and preventative in-cab coaching. In addition, footage from Samsara AI Dash Cams allows USIC to recognize outstanding performance and lower risky driving behaviors at scale. With Samsara Panic Buttons, technicians can alert managers of emergencies or compromising situations. In its pilot with Samsara, USIC reduced mobile phone usage by 92%, no seat belt instances by 85%, and rolling stops by 50%. 

“Increasing safety for our technicians behind the wheel is critical as crashes are the number one risk they face,” said Tom Karnowski, Vice President of Environment, Health, and Safety at USIC. “We evaluated other vendors but right off the bat, it was clear the safety improvements we could make with Samsara. Samsara’s platform interface is also a cut above the rest, it’s extremely user-friendly – even those with zero training sessions could navigate it easily.” 

USIC is invested in being a good environmental steward and is committed to sustainability in all aspects of its operations. With Samsara Vehicle Telematics, USIC expects to increase fuel efficiency across its fleet which means less carbon emissions in the atmosphere and lower fuel costs. In addition, USIC can improve vehicle utilization and customer service as a result of real-time data on the location of its vehicles and their maintenance needs. With its previous provider, according to Samsara, this data was delayed by 20 minutes, causing unnecessary pauses in action. 

“For our customers, minutes and even seconds matter. Maneuvering our workforce to the right place quickly, especially during emergencies, means trust in knowing where people are, where they were, and where they can go next. That’s where Samsara’s strength as a unified platform comes into play,” said Karnowski. “With Samsara’s platform, we can see the bigger picture of what’s happening in our operations and make adjustments throughout the day. We’re excited to discover all of the improvements we can make with this level of detail at our fingertips.”