Samsara supplies the telematics hardware, ELD, dash cams and dashboards that most fleets should not try to rebuild. Tepia builds custom fleet apps on top of the Samsara API, tying vehicle location, hours of service and inspection data to your own dispatch, job, customer and maintenance workflows, and adds Geotab or Motive data when a fleet runs more than one provider.
Samsara tells you where every vehicle is and how it is driven; a custom fleet app decides what that vehicle should do next and who needs to know.
Tepia keeps Samsara gateways, ELDs and dash cams in place and reads their data by API, so drivers keep the devices they already know.
Read: Custom Fleet Management App Development
Tepia normalizes Samsara, Geotab and Motive feeds into one model when acquisitions or leased units leave you with several providers.
Read: How to Choose a Fleet Management Software Developer
A custom app joins GPS, engine hours and HOS with your jobs, loads or routes, so dispatchers assign work on data rather than guesswork.
Read: Telematics Integration with Samsara, Geotab and Motive
Samsara webhooks for geofence, harsh event and fault alerts trigger your own workflows, such as a customer text or a repair order.
Industry figures Tepia plans around when fleets weigh Samsara tools against a custom app.
FMCSA rules allow property carrying drivers up to 11 hours of driving after 10 consecutive hours off duty.
The American Trucking Associations reports trucks move roughly 72 percent of US domestic freight by weight.
BLS data show transportation incidents caused 38.2 percent of US occupational fatalities in 2024, the most of any event type.
Samsara is a connected operations platform built around its own hardware: vehicle gateways that read GPS and engine data, AI dash cams, asset trackers for trailers and equipment, and an electronic logging device for hours of service. On top sit dashboards for location, safety scores, fuel and idling, maintenance alerts, driver vehicle inspection reports and a driver app. For most fleets, that hardware and compliance layer is not something to rebuild, and Tepia does not recommend trying.
Samsara also exposes an API and webhooks that cover vehicles, drivers, locations, HOS logs, inspections and alerts. That openness is what makes the custom conversation practical. You do not have to choose between Samsara and custom; you decide which workflows live in Samsara’s screens and which live in software built for your operation.
A fleet running standard routes with a small dispatch team can often stop there. Samsara’s own dashboards and its partner integrations cover the common needs well.
Telematics answers where the truck is. Tepia hears from fleets when the harder questions are about the work:
Each of these uses Samsara data, but the logic belongs to your business. Tepia builds that logic as an app and integration layer that sits beside Samsara rather than replacing it.
Tepia uses this decision table with fleet operators:
| Criteria | Samsara alone | Samsara plus a custom app | Fully custom telematics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware and ELD | Samsara devices | Samsara devices | Third party devices you integrate and certify |
| HOS and inspection compliance | Built in | Built in, data reused in your app | Your responsibility end to end |
| Dispatch and job logic | Standard routing and dispatch | Built around your jobs, crews and equipment | Built around your jobs |
| Customer portal and ETAs | Shareable tracking links | Branded portal with your rules | Branded portal |
| Mixed telematics providers | Samsara only | Samsara, Geotab and Motive in one model | Whatever you integrate |
| Time to value | Fastest | Typically 4 to 9 months including Discovery | Longest, with hardware and certification work |
| Best fit | Standard fleets | Fleets whose work is more complex than their trucks | Rare: telematics is your product |
The middle column is where Tepia usually recommends investing. Our telematics integration with Samsara, Geotab and Motive page covers the API work in detail.
A Tepia fleet build usually has four parts. A dispatch console shows jobs, crews and vehicles on one map with Samsara locations and HOS availability, so a dispatcher never assigns a run that a driver cannot legally finish. A driver app in React Native or Swift and Kotlin carries job details, custom checklists, photos and signatures, working offline on rural routes and syncing later. A customer portal shows live ETAs and proof of completion for each customer’s own jobs only. An integration layer listens to Samsara webhooks and moves data into QuickBooks, your ERP or your maintenance system.
Maintenance is a common first module. Samsara fault codes and engine hours trigger repair orders and parts requests in your shop system automatically. See fleet maintenance software development for that workflow and ELD and hours of service integration for compliance data.
Tepia runs its six phase process with a US based project manager who works with your fleet manager, dispatch lead and safety director.
Discovery typically takes 1 to 3 months, development and QA 2 to 6 months, and launch about a month. See our process.
If you are comparing development partners, ask each one to explain how they would use Samsara’s API rather than replace it, how they handle offline drivers, and how HOS availability will shape dispatch decisions. A good partner should answer those in the first conversation. Tepia’s answers come from integration work across Samsara, Geotab and Motive and from building driver apps that run in cabs every day.
Read how to choose a fleet management software developer and custom fleet management app development, look at our work, or talk to Tepia.
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