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Geofencing: What It Is and How It Is Used

Geofencing: What It Is and How It Is Used

One may hear a lot about the use of geofence in different industries. Similar to a real fence, geofence creates virtual boundaries around a physical location. Let’s learn more about geofencing and how it exactly works. 

What is Geofencing? 

Nowadays, different mapping softwares like Google Maps can draw a geofence around any geographic area. 

These virtual fences are composed of coordinates that help separate the boundaries from the area inside. They either use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or WIFI and work with GPS to set up the virtual boundaries. 

Geofencing is used for various purposes; for example, when parents want to identify if their child leaves a particular geofenced area or, in another case, one can receive a push notification if his vehicle is stolen from the geographical location inside the geofenced area.  

The use of geofence has recently become widespread for tracking employees, of course, if the system is used legally and transparently. The ultimate goal of companies is to increase productivity and prevent any type of inflated costs. A marketing strategy involving location-based marketing can even be implemented using geofencing capabilities.

In this article, we will discuss how construction companies use geofencing for the following purposes: 

Location Tracking 

Construction jobsites are heavy with machinery and a large workforce. Thus, supervisors can experience tough times managing altogether by traveling from one site to another. 

It is time-consuming and inefficient to physically arrive at every jobsite to check the progress of construction projects. 

With the help of mapping softwares, managers can geofence the exact location data of jobsites and use GPS to track the entrance and exit of personnel, the movement of equipment or any other activity. Mobile devices with location services enabled are often used for this purpose.

Many tracking softwares with geofence send alerts and emails whenever an activity takes place. This is a great way to detect and prevent theft from the jobsites or outsiders’ entrance to the construction area. 

Let’s learn more about employee and equipment tracking in more detail below. 

Employee Tracking 

Geofencing the jobsite means you can also see when your employees are clocking in and out on their mobile device.

The geofence technology will help you eliminate ghost employees – the employees that appear on your payroll but are not present at the jobsite. 

Employees clock in and out inside the geofenced area and nobody can punch if they are not at the jobsite. 

Our solution, MobiClocks uses geofence along with the most recent face recognition technology when employees are punching in or out. These two features together will make sure the right person is at the jobsite. 

Equipment Tracking 

As construction includes valuable vehicles and equipment, it’s important to ensure they are used at their full capacity with the most efficiency. 

Geofence allows construction companies to determine when a vehicle leaves a particular location and reaches the other geofenced area. After that, companies pull reports to evaluate the performance of the driver or vehicle or transportation route. 

Managers not only detect equipment misuse or theft by using geofence, but also improve efficiency by comparing performance against delivery schedules. 

Geofencing technology is becoming more popular in the construction industry and construction projects managers should learn about its use very fast. 


Read another article by MobiClocks on the must-have skills of construction projects managers and how they need to adapt to changes in the industry.

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