Improve Your Fleet Business with Geofencing

When it’s about fleet management, the presence of the right technology tools is key to achieving operational efficiency. A GPS fleet tracker is usually the go-to technology for fleets, but such a device comes with other useful features you can utilize as a fleet manager. One such element is geofencing - a highly versatile tool with many benefits.

What is Geofencing?

Geofencing is the practice of using GPS or RFID tech to create virtual perimeters around real-world locations. These boundaries are called geofences or geozones and are exclusively available with fleet tracking solutions and associated devices. A geozone triggers user-defined responses whenever a fleet vehicle with an OBD-II tracker enters or exits a specific area.

Vyncs geofencing lets users set up geofences from their accounts to know when their vehicles enter or leave certain locations. Unlike other OBD-II gps trackers, Vyncs offers a more powerful, any-shape geofence. With it, you can create a polygonal geozone instead of just a circular fence.

Fleets use geofencing for multiple purposes, such as automatically logging the data when their telematics-connected vehicles arrive at or leave from job sites, properties, and other locations. This automation separates geofencing-based automobile tracking from more basic forms of GPS monitoring fleets use.

Enhance fleet operations with geozones

Now that we learned what geofencing is and what it can do, how can we utilize this tool to actually enhance fleet operations?

Vehicle theft has increased significantly in the USA. Over 700,000 instances of car theft were reported four years ago (FBI Table 1). For a fleet manager, responding quickly to a potential theft can be the difference between recovering an operational asset and losing it forever.

Fleet managers can set up geozones easily around areas frequented during regular operations. Once a vehicle leaves the fenced zone, the manager will be alerted. After

that, the manager can decide to check the GPS location of the automobile and communicate with the driver to ensure the asset is in safe hands.

Fleet managers always search for ways to improve operational efficiency and optimize driver routes. Before making such decisions, fleet owners should gather baseline data on the current operations and pinpoint important metrics, such as travel time. This information can be difficult to acquire without separating travel data from operational data.

For instance, delivery drivers can complete a trip relatively quickly but will take more time doing actual deliveries. Geozones facilitate identifying the time drivers take to travel between points of interest and segregate the data for optimization.

Data on crimes available publicly makes it easy for fleet managers to pinpoint the locations where vehicle theft or other threats are more likely to occur. Fleet managers usually avoid such areas during operations, but it can be difficult sometimes to avoid these locations entirely.

Fleet managers concerned with safety use geozones to mark these areas and alert drivers and command teams to be more attentive while passing through these locations. You can also set up geozone alerts to inform teams once a driver passes through a dangerous area safely.

Drivers often need to go far from time to time. During these trips, they usually cater to a few specific routes or geographical areas only. It facilitates fleet owners to spend their resources more efficiently and ensure vehicles are not traveling unnecessarily, especially when another driver is better positioned to finish the task.

Geofencing enables businesses to assign specific areas to drivers and receive alerts when these locations overlap or when a driver is diverted onto a less efficient route. During such circumstances, fleet managers can depend on vehicle monitoring devices and software to help drivers cover long distances without overlapping.

Fleet managers have to oversee their operations, and for that purpose, they call their drivers constantly over the phone or refresh their fleet management system or dashboard to view their fleet's current position. Apart from depending heavily on manual processes, this approach is time-consuming for all parties involved.

With geofencing, fleet managers can monitor their personnel and determine the ETA without making a single phone call. By drawing geozones around rest areas, loading zones, job sites, and other locations, fleet managers can receive automatic reports of their drivers’ activities. It lets fleet managers focus on other activities while remaining informed.

If an organization compensates its personnel every hour, it can benefit from geozones. It will streamline payroll processing, for starters. Paper-based timesheets can have mistakes and are prone to being lost or damaged. However, referencing the logs of when drivers cross through geozones makes it easier to see the precise job times.

This clarity allows the finance teams a sense of relief. They don’t have to deal with paper documents, which, in turn, lets them calculate payroll more confidently and accurately.

Geofencing with Vyncs

Whether it’s about improving fleet and driver visibility or getting alerted of unwanted vehicle activity, the versatility of geofencing makes it an incredible tool for various fleets. Visit Vyncs to find out more about how you can benefit from geozones, vehicle tracking, and more.