Samsara data export: what fleets can download and keep

What can fleets export from Samsara?#

Fleets can export most operational data from Samsara, including location and trip history, hours-of-service logs, inspection reports, safety events, diagnostics and video clips, but each type has its own route and limits. The table is a working map; confirm the specifics for your account in the dashboard and Samsara's documentation, because features and plans change.

Treat any feature you cannot see in your own account as unconfirmed. Plan tiers, add-ons and admin permissions affect which reports appear, and a user role without full permissions may see less than the account actually holds. SourceX is not affiliated with Samsara, and this map is a planning aid rather than vendor documentation.

Dashboard reports or the API: which route fits a full history?#

Dashboard reports fit regular, bounded pulls, while the Samsara API is usually the better route for a complete, multi-year history. Reports are easy to run but are filtered by date range, group and report type, so a full archive turns into many manual downloads that are easy to miss.

The API returns structured records that a script can page through by vehicle, driver and time window. That makes it practical to rebuild trips, HOS logs and events into one archive with consistent IDs. It needs an API token with the right scopes and someone who can write and test the extraction.

• 1Create a dedicated read-only API token for the export and record who holds it.
• 2Pull reference data first: vehicles, drivers, tags and groups, so later records can be joined.
• 3Extract each data type by time window, oldest first, logging the window, record count and any errors.
• 4Save video clips with their event IDs, timestamps and vehicle IDs in a manifest.
• 5Reconcile totals against dashboard reports for sample months before trusting the archive.
• 6Revoke the token once the export is complete and verified.

How long does Samsara keep video and history?#

Samsara retention depends on your plan, your settings and your agreement, so the reliable answer is the one in your contract and admin console. Video is usually the most limited: stored clips can age out, and footage never uploaded from a camera may be overwritten on the device.

Write down three dates for every data type: how far back you can pull today, when retention will remove the oldest records, and when your access ends after notice. Ask your account representative to confirm post-termination access in writing, including whether a read-only period or bulk export is offered.

If you are changing providers, do not count on the new vendor importing your old history in usable form. Ask, and plan as if it will not. The archive you build before cutover is the history you keep.

Who owns the data in a Samsara account?#

Ownership of data in a Samsara account is set by your customer agreement and the terms it incorporates, not by assumption. Fleet operators often assume they own everything their trucks generate, while vendor terms commonly give the vendor rights to use aggregated or de-identified data.

Those clauses matter twice: once for getting your history out, and again if you ever consider licensing de-identified fleet records, because vendor terms and your driver notices both shape what can be included. Save a dated copy of the agreement and order forms with the archive, so the terms that applied to each period stay on file.

• 1The definition of customer data and who owns it.
• 2Vendor rights to aggregated, de-identified or derived data.
• 3Data retrieval rights and the window after termination.
• 4Restrictions on bulk extraction or reuse of exported data.
• 5Deletion obligations after the contract ends.
• 6Terms about camera and biometric features and the notices you must give drivers.

Which Samsara data needs a privacy decision?#

Driver-facing video, location history and safety scores are the Samsara data types that most need a privacy decision before anything is kept long term or reused. They identify individuals directly or through patterns, and several state laws regulate employee monitoring and biometric data.

Biometric privacy statutes such as Illinois' BIPA may apply where camera features scan facial geometry, for example to identify drivers or detect distraction, and state privacy and employee monitoring laws may cover other driver data. Whether they apply depends on the feature, the state and the notices drivers received, so counsel assesses that case by case.

A practical split: keep video tied to claims and legal holds under restricted access, keep aggregated safety metrics for operations, and decide separately whether raw driver-facing footage is kept at all after the contract ends. Whatever the split, write it down with the date and the name of the person who approved it.

Illustrative: a final-mile fleet switches telematics providers#

Illustrative: a fictional final-mile delivery fleet running box trucks in two states decides to move to a new telematics provider when its Samsara agreement ends. The COO wants trips, HOS logs, DVIRs, fault codes and safety events preserved, plus video tied to open claims.

An IT contractor builds an API export by vehicle and month, logs record counts for each window, reconciles three sample months against dashboard reports and stores the archive in company-owned cloud storage with a data dictionary and a dated copy of the Samsara agreement. The safety manager downloads claim-related clips with event metadata. Driver-facing footage not tied to a claim or legal hold is not archived.

Months later, the owners review the archive for licensing. Diagnostics linked to repair orders are judged strong candidates, location traces would need heavy generalization, and driver video is excluded.

How SourceX approaches telematics history#

SourceX approaches telematics history as one record family among several, assessed through the SourceX Enterprise Data Value Framework alongside dispatch, maintenance and exception records. Telematics data is most useful when it connects to what happened next: a fault code to a repair order, a delay to a customer exception.

Any license follows the SourceX five-step transaction: Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval and Delivery. Vendor terms and driver notices are checked in Rights, location and driver details are removed in Preparation, and the fleet approves every step. Large archives stay in the fleet's own storage or ship on encrypted drives.