What Is GEO-Fencing GPS Trackers?

Employers often struggle with improving business efficiency, especially if large numbers of employees work off-site, making service calls or deliveries. This is one of the many reasons why employers may choose to check the movements of their workers with fleet GPS tracking systems. There are many ways businesses can use a GPS vehicle tracking system with features like geo-fencing to help improve customer service, time, and route management for their employees, resulting in a more productive workforce.

The first step to take when you want to monitor employee movement is to provide employees with proper education on the data collected and how GPS tracking can benefit both your business and their safety, giving them peace of mind. Then, select a GPS tracking device for your fleet vehicles.

Popular options include:

• Bolt 2 GPS Vehicle Tracker, which can be plugged into the OBD-II port under the dash
• Dart 3 GPS Vehicle Tracker, which is hardwired to the vehicle, cannot be easily removed.
• Remora3 Battery-Powered Tracker, with turn-by-turn tracking and tamper detection, and deploy once battery life 
• Yabby GPS Tracker, which is a small battery-powered GPS tracker that can be used in a variety of applications,

Each of these devices has its own set of features for specific applications. Keep Track GPS can help you select the right fleet GPS tracking system for checking your fleet, helping to ensure that you have the features that will be most useful for you. Our full-featured tracking system, which is available with the majority of the trackers we offer, enables you to check your employees’ movements, travel routes, speed, stops, harsh braking, and acceleration with the smartphone mobile app.

Geo-fencing entails utilising GPS technology to establish a digital perimeter in various places, such as construction zones, delivery zones, residences, workplaces, commercial venues, storage facilities, or even an entire state.
Think of it simply as the virtual boundaries you control. This enables our tracking software to alert or trigger a text message or specified response when the tracked asset enters or leaves the geofenced area or performs a certain activity.
If the asset you are tracking leaves your controlled radius (jumps your digital fence) or performs a specific activity (exceeds the speed limit), the device can alert the driver, and you’ll also be notified via an alert.

Geo-fences can now be downloaded directly from our Telematics Software onto supported devices. This gives the device knowledge of which geofence it is in, allowing for a wide range of new applications. Benefits of geofencing include:

• Driver behaviour includes setting custom speed limits on private property, such as a mine site, and triggering a buzzer when the driver exceeds the limit.
• Disabling cellular communication (and GPS fixes for a period) in a sensitive area, such as at an airport or on an oil rig,
• Using alternate logging parameters, depending on the area a device is in, to achieve perfect battery life
• Turning on a vehicle’s emergency lights in a specific geographical location

 Exploring the Use of Geofences

Once you have equipped your company's vehicles with the tracking devices you prefer, you can proceed to establish your personalisations on the tracking system. Options include tracking speed, idle time, and breaks.

With advancements in global positioning system technology [GPS], geo-fencing is one of the best ways to check vehicle movement so that you can manage routes and work times for better efficiency. Here are a few quick and effortless ways you can set up geo-fences to examine aspects of your vehicle and product movement. Some of these ways are detailed below.

Visibility

With geo-fencing enabled, you can show your vehicles that enter or leave certain areas. This allows you to record the time they arrive and leave designated areas, how long they spent onsite, the speed they were travelling at, and how they behaved (both on and between job sites).

This information will help you measure and compare productivity, so you can find your company vehicles that have been misused. Tracking the availability of vehicles within your business fleet also means you can assign jobs based on the nearest vehicle or equipment, minimising time and money spent completing tasks.

 Using GPS Tracking Data for Maximising Efficiency

This level of fleet management is far more effective than simply seeing your employees’ locations. With alerts and timestamps, you’re able to create complete snapshots of each employee’s workday. Having this data gives you greater insight into where your employees are spending the most time. Once you have this snapshot, you’ll be able to dig deeper into the reasons for inefficiencies and establish better systems.

For example, you may discover that one employee often arrives late to his or her first stop or takes an unexpectedly long time to get from one job to another. Disciplining an employee without understanding their situation may not help resolve any issues, but having detailed location data will allow you to examine the situation more closely.

Utilising a GPS tracking system may help you decide that the designated route for that employee follows a school bus route or a road that is notoriously slow during rush hour. Creating a more efficient work environment starts with understanding the specific challenges employees are facing.

 Theft Protection

When a staggering $650 million of high-cost construction machinery is stolen from work sites around Australia each year, something’s got to give.

“Having tracking devices installed in discrete locations naturally makes thieves nervous. Having a device fitted will make them think twice before doing the crime."

Equipment theft has a devastating knock-on effect for businesses and owner-operators. The cost to businesses is therefore significant, not only as an insurance cost but also as an operational cost.

With geo-fences, the risk of anything being stolen is considerably lower. You’ll receive an immediate email or SMS alert if something leaves or enters a site outside of scheduled operating hours. For example, if an excavator is only supposed to be used between 5 a.m. and 4 p.m., you’ll receive a notification right away, or if someone’s trying to move it offsite late at night.

With your GPS tracker, you can provide real-time insight into the location, status, and productivity of your equipment anywhere, anytime. Recovery of the equipment is significantly aided by knowing its exact location.

Getting your equipment back can be more cost-effective from a productivity point of view. While assets might be damaged when stolen, it is often quicker to fix items than it is to replace them, especially when it comes to specialist equipment.

The most effective recovery method is GPS based tracking systems (telematics). The reason telematics is more effective is that it supplies up to date location-based information about where assets are. GPS enables a quick and efficient response that reduces the recovery time but can do so before equipment becomes damaged.

GPS tracking enables the use of geofencing to show when plant or equipment leave a pre-determined boundary. Notifications and alerts can be created to provide a warning should assets leave geofenced areas outside of business hours. With this early notification, businesses can react promptly, improving the likelihood of recovery and reducing the impact it has on the business.

Even if the asset isn’t recovered immediately, the timely notification of the theft of an asset can allow sufficient notice to arrange alternative replacements, rather than employees showing up to collect a piece of plant or equipment only to discover it has been stolen.

 Potential Problems That Can Be Solved with Geofences

Once you’ve begun gathering your data, you may be able to solve a variety of problems that you’ve been unable to manage before. Five issues that can be addressed include:

Utilising small geofences can help you manage the following aspects of your business efficiency:

• Tardiness
• Missed tasks or jobs
• Long or short worktimes
• Missing equipment
• Customer complaints

If you’re able to see more details about where your employees are, how long they’re there, and what routes they’re taking, you’ll be able to have a clearer picture of each employee’s movements. Finding and addressing these types of workday inefficiencies with detailed data can help you guide your employees to better route planning and time management techniques, making business flow smoothly.