Safety Score Categories and Calculation

Samsara calculates the safety score using a mix of events over time. These events include harsh events, speeding events, AI-detected unsafe driving behavior events, and defensive driving events. The safety score surfaces throughout the dashboard, such as in the Safety Overview and in the Driver Coaching Workflow, to encourage positive driving behaviors and to coach drivers to reduce unsafe driving practices and minimize the likelihood of accidents.

To help you quickly and easily identify safety score severity, safety scores are displayed with the following default color-coded indicators to represent the range of the safety score performance:

Great: Safety Score of 90 - 100
Average: Safety Score of 80 - 89
Poor: Safety Score of 0 - 79

To configure the safety score performance band ranges for your fleet, see Configure Performance Band Ranges.

Safety Score Weights

Each event is assigned a Safety Score weight based on the severity of the offense. To customize the safety score weights to highlight the behaviors that matter to you the most, see Safety Score Weights and Configuration.

Safety Score Calculation

Samsara calculates and updates Safety Scores using completed trip data and reviewed safety events.

Calculation Timing and Event Inclusion

The following rules determine when Safety Scores are calculated and which events are included:

Scores are calculated at trip completion. Safety events affect Safety Scores only after the associated trip has ended.
Reviewed event changes trigger score recalculation. If a safety event is edited after review, the associated Safety Score is recalculated, provided the trip has already ended.
Events outside of trips are excluded. Safety events that occur outside the start and end of a trip do not contribute to Safety Scores.
Defensive Driving suppresses negative behaviors. When a Defensive Driving label is present on an event with another behavior label, only the Defensive Driving behavior is included in Safety Score calculation.

Calculation Constraints and Score Limits

The following considerations affect how Safety Scores are calculated:

Distance Unit: Use miles as the unit of measurement for calculations, regardless of region.
No Distance Logged: Drivers who have not logged any driving distance will have a safety score of 0. Only drivers with recorded driving distances display a safety score.
Score Range: Each driver has a score that can range from 0 to 100, with 100 being the maximum potential safety score.

Manually Calculating the Safety Score

You can calculate the safety score of each driver or vehicle using the following equations:

Safety Score = 100 - (sum of all score impacts)

Where the sum of all score impacts is the total impact on the safety score for all unsafe driving behaviors. This depends on the type of behavior as follows:

Speeding behaviors

Impact to score = (Time spent speeding x weight) / (total time driving / 100)
Following Distance, Inattentive Driving (Automatic):

Impact to score = (Number of events x weight) / total time driving
All Other Behaviors:

Impact to score = (Number of events x weight) / (total miles driven / 1000)
Positive Behaviors (such as Defensive Driving):

Positive behaviors are negative values. Subtract these from the total score impact to reward safe driving.

Behavior Impact in Safety Reports

For a clear overview of how specific behaviors affect the safety score, refer to the Safety Risk Factor Reports. These reports display the impact of each behavior on the safety score:

Negative Behaviors: Displayed as negative values, indicating a reduction in the safety score.
Positive Behaviors (such as Defensive Driving): Displayed as positive values, indicating an improvement in the safety score.

Configure Performance Band Ranges

Samsara utilizes color-coded performance bands to visually represent the safety scores that display in reports and for coaching activities.

To modify the performance range that displays for each color:

Select the Settings icon ( ) at the bottom of your Fleet menu to view dashboard settings.
From Fleet settings, select Safety.
Enable the Custom Performance Bands setting.
Click and drag the marker to increase or decrease the safety score band.

Driver Safety Score Intended Use and Best Practices

Samsara recommends that you inform your drivers that certain data collected about their driving will be used to calculate a Safety Score and recommends that you provide drivers with materials about the Safety Score configuration and calculation specific to your organization. Safety Scores should be used primarily for coaching and training purposes and to help build a safety culture within your organization. Employment decisions including, but not limited to, those involving hiring, termination, compensation, and route and hours assignments should never be based on Safety Scores alone and should always only be one data point for an employment decision that is ultimately made by a supervisor or other employee.

Safety Score Weights