What is Geofencing? How fleet managers are using them to improve their operations

Geofencing is a valuable tool for the freight and logistics companies to track fleet vehicles.  The technology creates virtual boundaries around specific geographic locations such as warehouses, distribution centers, and delivery destinations.

From there, you can track & action a number of events around these geofences, such as mobile push notifications, trigger text messages or alerts, allow tracking on vehicle fleets, entry & exit times, driver behavior and more within the geofenced area. Using GPS-based geofencing can deliver a significant advantage over your competitors by providing fleet managers with full transparency, operational efficiencies and a higher degree of safety for critical shipments. Below are a few ways that fleet managers are utilizing geofences to their advantage.

 #1:  Track vehicle deliveries in real-time

When transporting high-value, high-risk loads such as refrigerated products or medical supplies, the ability to know a trailer’s arrival in real-time is critical. Auto-statusing of assets with geofencing maximizes the visibility throughout the supply chain – from origin to destination. Notifications are sent when a truck departs or enters an assigned boundary, allowing you to improve schedules and planning, as well as identify any assets that are being misused.

 #2:  Improve customer service

Setting delivery notifications and automated reports through geofencing can help you provide a higher level of customer service. The technology ensures your drivers are staying on task and tracks performance against service level agreements. You can determine if a shipment or delivery is going to be late and proactively reach out to your customers and give them an accurate, updated arrival time.

 #3:  Decrease detention time

With the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate and detailed tracking for hours of service, carriers have gained an accurate understanding of just how much detention time is affecting the bottom line. Geofences allow fleet managers to obtain granular data regarding wait times at specific locations. This actionable intelligence identifies historical trends about schedule adherence for inbound and outbound loads – allowing carrier fleets to address delays and optimize route plans to reduce fuel and labor costs.

 #4:  Prevent fleet theft

Fleet security and protection is an essential concern for any operation involving trailers or construction equipment. Geofencing can act as an insurance policy against vehicle theft.  Creating a geofence to monitor and send alert notifications when any fleet vehicle leaves a designated area after hours can massively improve response times by providing detailed information to law enforcement that increases the likelihood of recovering stolen assets.

 #5:  Keep freight safe

When it comes to shipping high-value and temperature-sensitive freight, the safety of a load is the top priority. By integrating data created by geofences with reefer monitoring solutions that automate compliance obligations using a powerful range of sensors and probes, you can remotely assess and control additional critical data points such as temperature, humidity, airflow in the trailer. Coretex’s two-way reefer solution provides operators the ability to remotely adjust, troubleshoot or reset temperature settings – ensuring freight remains safe during transport.

Request a demo to learn more about Coretex’s geofencing, supply chain assurance, and fleet management solutions.