Brian Joss – As the tracking industry grows and offers consumers ever more ways to recover stolen assets and innovative ways to do so, the word geo-fence is being heard more often. What exactly does this mean and how does it benefit your business?
Geo-fence is the ability to use software to set a virtual geographic boundary and when an item crosses a border of this boundary, an alert is issued. The managing director of Legratron Electronics, Itumeleng Matshego,
explains: “There are a number of ways in which businesses can benefit from using this technology in their operations, mainly by triggering alerts when resources are not being used correctly.”
Geo-fence technology can be used in various ways:
To provide alerts when assets or products are being used outside of areas or times that are permitted which results in better utilisation of resources.
To serve as an early warning system when a theft has occurred.
To alert you that your assets or vehicles have entered an area identified as high risk. You can then divert the asset or vehicle back to safe zones or immediately check if a theft has occurred.
It allows you to use route mapping. This is when you move highly valuable items or products and a geo-fence alerts you when that load diverts from the intended path.
To indicate when vehicles are in close proximity to certain locations or to other vehicles. This, for example, can be used to reduce unnecessary trips to these locations or borders.
To improve utilisation of fleets by indicating how often certain vehicles are used.
To provide insights for decision-making. For example, the data produced can indicate that a certain type of vehicle in your fleet is used more often which can assist your decision when purchasing more vehicles.
To improve turnaround time by identifying where hold-ups occur.
To save time by identifying when people or assets are at certain locations longer than what is necessary.
To provide early alerts when assets or deliveries are about to arrive or when held up in traffic.
To improve planning, for example by using the insights provided to improve delivery schedules.
To improve accuracy in billings if you charge clients based on time spent at a location.
To quickly and more-effectively deliver to customer demand by diverting the nearest vehicles to that customer.
Crime in South Africa was largely responsible for the rise of tracking technology, especially in cars and more recently other assets. Geo-fence technology is what allows your tracking system to become much more than a way to recover stolen goods.
CAPTION: A fleet that uses geo-tech. Picture: Pixabay
