Safety Enhanced: Using Geofencing to Operationalize Risk in Weather and Danger Zones

Extreme weather events are growing in frequency. The United States and countries around the world are more regularly affected by wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters, and these events have profound implications and risks for logistics, supply chains, and field operations.

Forward-thinking organizations are turning to geofencing platforms to better understand weather and danger zones so they can make decisions to keep logistics moving on time, safeguard supply chains, and protect field operations personnel.

At Kestrel Insights, many of our users are now leveraging our automated polygon geofencing to track weather and other danger zones so they can make fast, timely, and confident decisions related to fire hazards and other weather events and risks of danger.

Continue reading to learn more about using modern geofencing amid weather events and other dangers, and get in touch with us to discuss how you can use our geofencing solutions to gain valuable insights for safety and risk management — and ultimately to protect your team and business.

The Need for Geofencing in Weather and Danger Zones

Weather conditions can change rapidly. As conditions shift, many organizations are dealing with compliance, risk, insurance, and safety issues, and they need a solution to track changing conditions and make timely, informed decisions with accuracy.

For example, logging companies and similar organizations are asked to work in environments with significant fire risk. The public fire danger rating system uses three different levels to identify risk: high, medium, and low. Depending on the current risk designation, organizations may need to use specific tools (like spark arrestors) or take specific actions (like restricting parking locations) to stay compliant, reduce risk, and increase the safety of team members. A modern geofencing solution like Kestrel Insights can connect to the public fire safety database to geofence areas based on the current fire risk — so that crews can follow compliant processes and take compliant action.

The risk of wildfire calls for accurate, real-time tracking in danger zones — which is exactly what automated polygon geofencing provides. The same is true of hurricane and tornado zones. Logistics and supply chain organizations may want fleets to avoid evacuation areas in a hurricane’s path or avoid tornado-prone regions when there’s a high threat level. The same can be true of tsunami and lightning zones — geofences can activate specific safety measures or procedures for teams in the field.

When you leverage geofencing to work safely in danger zones, you protect your people and your assets, and you also safeguard your business against liability.

How Kestrel Insights Automates Danger Zone Geofencing

Kestrel Insights can be your technological solution and partner for mitigating risk in danger zones, whether related to weather or other events. Here’s how it works:

1. Kestrel Insights ingests and maintains a mapping layer for high-risk areas (like fire danger zones).
2. Our platform creates accurate geofences that perfectly adhere to the borders and contours of these zones.
3. Users can configure alerts when conditions change in a given area (like when a fire rating moves from medium to high or when a hurricane warning is issued).
4. Organizations can take action to mitigate risk and protect personnel based on these alerts.

Our users use geofencing to track teams in weather zones and send real-time instructions from headquarters (for example, to evacuate or modify operations). They also rely on geofencing data for reporting on when and how long assets and personnel were in danger zones, or for compliance purposes. Others use geofencing data to ensure procedural compliance (like not parking in a dry, grassy field when fire danger is high) or to assist during insurance claim disputes.

Access to public databases allows Kestrel Insights to automatically update geofences based on changing conditions in fire, hurricane, or other danger zones. Our users can take advantage of our many integrations to add these geofences and related alerts to Motive, Samsara, Project44, and other platforms that they use to manage their businesses day to day.

Enhanced Geofencing with Kestrel Insights’ POI Functionality

In addition to weather and natural danger zones, Kestrel Insights offers geofencing solutions to help organizations avoid other high-risk areas through our Points of Interest (POI) functionality. Companies can automatically geofence and monitor areas like casinos, bars, tow lots, adult clubs, and other sensitive locations that don't align with brand values or guidelines.

By identifying and geofencing these areas, you can configure alerts and set custom protocols when entering or leaving these locations. This can be especially valuable for industries where operating near or within these zones poses operational risks or compliance concerns. Whether avoiding certain areas during shipments or ensuring teams follow the necessary procedures, Kestrel Insights’ POI functionality ensures your organization remains compliant and reduces liability in potentially risky zones.

Protect Your Business and its People With Geofencing

As weather events become more frequent, advances in technology are giving us the ability to protect our people, our assets, and our organizations. If weather events ever threaten your business, use the power of automated polygon geofencing to maintain safety, compliance, and effective risk management.

Kestrel Insights’ automated polygon geofencing is already available as a native integration in many leading supply chain, logistics, and transportation platforms. If you're interested in harnessing the power of geofencing for safety in danger zones, get started by contacting our team.

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