When discussing fleet management, having the right tools is key to achieving optimal operations. While GPS tracking is the primary technology fleets use, it also allows other devices, like geofencing, to be utilised.
What Is Geofencing?
Geofencing is a predetermined ‘digital fence’ that fleet managers can set around specific points of interest (POI) locations of their choice. Working alongside GPS fleet trackers, a geofence will trigger alerts when vehicles enter or exit the geographical boundaries that have been set to your fleet management software. The alerts are sent as real-time notifications to your mobile device or computer.
There are many benefits of using geofencing when involved in fleet management:
Receive timely alerts after unauthorised activity
In 2021, vehicle theft went up by 3% compared to 2020. For fleet managers, the ability to rapidly respond to a potential robbery can be all the difference between recovering your business asset or losing it forever. How does it help? Fleet managers can set up geofencing around the frequently used areas during working operations. This means the moment a vehicle leaves the fenced area; the manager receives an alert, who can search the GPS location of the vehicle or communicate with the driver to make sure everything is still OK.
Collect and Analyse travel-specific data to improve efficiency
A competent fleet manager should always look for ways to improve operational efficiency and optimise driver routes. However, before making important decisions, fleet managers must collect data to help make the correct decision. They will need to identify essential metrics such as travel time. This can be difficult to achieve without separating travel data from operational data.
For example, delivery drivers can complete the drive relatively quickly but will take more time when conducting actual deliveries. Geofences allow you to identify how long it takes fleet drivers to travel between points of interest and isolate this data for optimisation.
Extra security for staff working in unsafe areas
Fleet managers can identify more dangerous areas where vehicle theft is more prominent through public data and crime reports. As a result, fleet managers can route plans to spend as little time as possible in these areas.
Fleet managers can use geofencing to mark these areas and alert drivers and command teams to be more attentive as they pass these regions. These geofence alerts can also be set up to inform teams once a driver has safely left a hazardous location.
Prevent operation overlaps
Drivers often cover large distances in a day and are usually responsible for specific routes or geographical areas. This allows fleet owners to spread their resources more efficiently and ensure that vehicles are not unnecessarily covering long distances when a driver is better positioned to complete the task.
Geofences enable businesses to assign specific areas to drivers and be alerted when these areas overlap or when a driver is diverted onto a less efficient route. In these cases, fleet managers can turn to GPS tracking software to help all drivers cover an efficient area without any overlap. This fundamentally helps the fleet become more efficient.
Geofences are incredibly easy to install for fleets looking to implement the feature into their fleet management process. Once you indicate key locations and enable access permissions for specific vehicles, you’ll instantly be able to see who is where at all times.
All of Fleetloc8’s products incorporate geofence alerts to our users. Are you looking for more information? Contact our friendly sales team to discuss your business needs, and we will tailor a solution to suit you.
Fleetloc8 has a wide range of products available to give you complete visibility of your fleet. We offer self-installed tracking with Pulse, or our Fleetloc8, a hard wired, intelligent tracking system. Fleetloc8 also offer numerous telematics systems ranging from Fleetcam, Fleetcam Live, a 24/7 live dashcam tracker, to our Fleetcam 360, a multi-camera solution idea for HGV’s.
