Connecting Samsara

Samsara is the other telematics system you can connect under Fleet → Telematics. Pick it from the provider list and there are two boxes rather than four, because Samsara signs in with a single token.

First, make an API token in Samsara

In the Samsara dashboard open Settings, scroll to API Tokens, and add one. You need to be a full or standard admin scoped to the whole organization — a tag-level admin cannot create tokens.

Give the token read access to vehicles, drivers, vehicle statistics, ELD compliance settings and IFTA. Those five are exactly what we read and nothing more. Leave every write permission off; nothing here ever writes to Samsara.

Then fill in two fields

• Region: api.samsara.com for a Canadian or American organization, api.eu.samsara.com for a European one. The European instance is a separate residency rather than a mirror, and a token issued for one does not work against the other.
• API token: the token you just created.

The token is encrypted before it is stored and is never shown again. When you come back to change something else, leave the token box blank and the stored one is kept.

Test it before you rely on it

Press Test connection. It reads your vehicles rather than only signing in, because a token that authenticates and cannot see a single vehicle is not a working connection — it just fails later, somewhere less obvious.

Match your vehicles and drivers

Press Sync vehicles & drivers. It reads every vehicle and every driver in your Samsara organization — including drivers who have been deactivated, because a link outlives the account and last quarter’s hours still belong to somebody. Matching then works exactly as it does for Geotab: vehicles by VIN, serial, plate or unit number, drivers by email, employee number or name, and anything ambiguous left for you to point at the right record.

What starts working

• Hours of service: duty status segments for matched drivers, with a yard move recorded as on duty and personal conveyance as off duty.
• North of 60: each driver’s entries are measured against the part of the standard their own Samsara ELD ruleset names, so a northern run is not held to southern limits.
• Odometers: the engine odometer where Samsara has diagnostic coverage, and the GPS one where it does not.
• The fleet map: last known position, speed and heading for matched units.
• Fuel & IFTA: distance by province from Samsara’s own IFTA report.

What is different from Geotab

• The connection troubleshooter is not offered. It asks Geotab for records by name, which is not how Samsara works. Samsara puts an identifier on every refusal instead, and we keep it — so if something is not arriving, tell us and we can trace the exact call.
• A position does not carry a driver. Samsara publishes position as a vehicle statistic without the driver logged in to it, so the map names the unit and the log book is where a driver and a truck are tied together.
• A crossing on the fuel tax worksheet names the vehicle rather than the driver, for the same reason.

Removing the connection

Remove deletes the stored token. Everything already synced stays exactly where it is, because those are now your records rather than a view of somebody else’s. Delete the token in Samsara too, so it cannot be used again.