Would you like to receive instant notification by text SMS if your vehicle has been moved (towed away, or “borrowed” by someone with your keys) or has been stolen?
One way this can be achieved is through the use of “geofencing”.
Geofencing made simple
A “geofence” is a virtual area based on a central GPS location. Basically the vehicle owner “Sets” the boundary of the virtual area by pressing a button, or by drawing it on an online map (more on this later).
The GPS tracker then “records” the GPS co-ordinate boundary and will send out a notification alert if the boundary is breached.
For example you may want to set a geofence:
- For your home garage (so if the vehicle is moved, you will be alerted)
- For your work car park
- For any storage area for vehicles, machinery, boats or other assets
- For a boat mooring location
- For a company yard, depot, etc.
- For a construction site area (so if the equipment moves outside that area, you will be alerted)
- For parking your car at long-term parking at an airport
- For parking your vehicle at the site of the road, or in a public car park
- You get the drift… anywhere your vehicle or asset may be parked, being operated, or stored.
Geofencing examples
One of the automatic notification features with the fleetminder GPS trackers is via the use of the geofence function.
You can use either the fleetminder Live Tracking system or the FREE fleetminder mobile app to create geofences around your vehicle or other asset (machinery, etc).
The actual geofence is usually a circle circumference around a central GPS location (see below). This geofence was “drawn” on a map using the fleetminder “Live Tracking” software or can be set using the FREE fleetminder phone app.
(The visual appearance of the geofence does not appear on a map if you use the mobile phone app. The fleetminder GPS tracker just knows where the boundary is by the GPS co-ordinates.)
The centre point of the circle (geofence) would be where your vehicle or asset is parked or stored.
Or a geofence can be “drawn” as a polygon shape on the fleetminder Live Tracking system map (see below).
How to set geofences using the fleetminder Live Tracking system
Here’s how to set the geofences using the Live Tracking system:
a) Zoom and move to the location on the map where you want to set a geofence.
b) Right mouse click to bring up the menu,
c) Expand the + sign next to “Add GeoFence”
d) Left mouse click on the preferred geofence shape (Polygon, Standard or Circle).
e) Draw the geofence shape. You may need to try a few times to get the hang of it and to get the geofence in the right spot.
f) Name the geofence (e.g. Home, depot, etc)
g) Set the notification alerts both email and SMS text.
h) Go to the main menu at the top and click on Setup, choose “Assign Geofences / Sites” then assign the geofence to your tracker or GPS trackers.
How to set geofences using the FREE fleetminder mobile phone app
Here’s how to set the geofences using the FREE fleetminder mobile app:
a) Press the “GEOFENCE COMMANDS” button on the main screen of the app
b) Press the “SET HOME GEOFENCE’ or the “SET CURRENT LOCATION GEOFENCE” to set the geofence location.
c) Press the “GEOFENCE ON” button for either the Home or Current Location geofence.
*** Don’t forget that you have to accept to send the SMS text command to the GPS tracking device (tracker) for these commands to work.
Summary
Geofencing is a good way to setup automatic notification alerts if your vehicle or asset has been moved.
This automatic notification will aid in the quick recovery of your valuable asset rather than you finding our later (even days later) that it has been taken.
Geofencing is an important and crucial feature in asset protection and comes as a free tool with all fleetminder tracking devices.