Geofencing by Corridor: GPS Tracking for Fleet Managers

When you are in charge of running a fleet of big rigs transporting valuable cargo, you need to be able to know where your vehicles always are. Thankfully, fleet management technology is making it a lot easier than ever to stay informed about the status of your fleet and whether they’re on schedule to make their deliveries — even when they’re traveling cross-country or just to a neighboring state.

Global positioning system (GPS) technology can help you stay informed about the location of your highway-bound vehicles no matter where they are to ensure they remain on route and on schedule. Regardless of whether your fleet vehicles operate within a specific area, or they travel larger distances along specific roads, you can keep a close eye on those assets while they’re in the field. This can be done using Rastrac’s GPS tracking software and a special tool called a geofence.

Geofencing Technology

In the most basic sense, a geofence is a location-based technology that allows you to create a virtual perimeter around a real-world geographic area, such as a job site or your office. If any of your fleet vehicles tagged with GPS devices enters or leaves the area, you will receive an email or text notification to inform you about the movement in real time. You also have the ability to run detailed reports about these events as well through Rastrac’s GPS tracking software dashboard.

In a nutshell, geofencing can help your fleet management department:

• Maximize fleet efficiency
• Increase the productivity of employees and drivers
• Improve the security of your vehicles/assets
• Improve driver behavior

Geofencing isn’t new, and it can serve as an efficient and versatile solution for a broad array of needs. This technology has been used by retailers to notify people near their location of current offers via mobile apps. It also has been used by parents to notify them when their child leaves a designated area.

With Rastrac’s geofencing tool, you have the option of creating geofences in different shapes and sizes, such as:

• Circular Geofence: This tool is the most straight-forward geofencing tool in the Rastrac dashboard. Simply select a circle size, choose your point on the map, and click your mouse. As the idiom goes, it’s easy as pie!
• Polygon Geofence: This tool is one you can use when you need to set a custom boundary that contours to your specifications. You can manually create this geofence point-by-point until it encompasses the specific area you wish to include.
• Corridor Geofence: This tool is unique from the others in that it creates a customizable border width along a stretch of highway or a roadway. Most users create a border that is two or three miles wide so they don’t receive alert notifications whenever a driver has to go slightly off-route to refuel, rest, or use a restroom.

Geofencing by Corridor in Action

Geofencing by corridor is a popular solution for fleet managers at transport companies that have fully-loaded big rigs traveling long distances. Geofencing by corridor is an efficient way to ensure that your fleet employees (and cargo) stay on route and to know when they arrive or leave their assigned destination. This tool allows you to define a specific route and receive notifications each time the vehicle deviates from that path.

If you’re not particularly technology-savvy, it’s okay; creating a geofence is a simple and easy-to-use process. Another advantage of geofences is that they are customizable in terms of how they are named and the colors they will display on your software map. This will help you to be better organized and more easily track each geofence area.

The geofence by corridor function is particularly useful for businesses in which the drivers operate along the same routes day after day. It also is very helpful when high-value cargo, such as pharmaceuticals, is being driven along dangerous routes where theft rates are known to be high.

Regardless of how you use it, geofencing is an incredible tool that will help to make your fleet operations more efficient and will help you stay informed. To learn more about how Rastac’s geofencing by corridor solution can help your fleet, contact our fleet management experts today to schedule a demo.