What Is a Geofence Efficiency Score (GES) and Why Is It Important?

Some of the supply chain’s most innovative and impactful companies rely on geofencing for their daily operations, but not all geofencing technology is equally effective. If you’re still using arbitrary circular geofences or dedicating time to manually drawing geofences with questionable accuracy, ROI is unlikely. It’s time to reevaluate the system you have in place.

The active geofencing market is projected to grow to more than $2 billion by the end of 2022. As a result, logistics operations must wisely leverage this technology to compete. For example, logistics tech platforms or operators’ internal systems with automated polygon geofencing via API offer a more robust offering to shipper customers. Additionally, the analytics powered by automated polygon geofences can improve internal freight management processes, such as marking a delivery as complete or getting a triggered alert that a truck has entered a yard and is ready to unload at the dock door. A Geofencing Efficiency Score (GES) allows data users to measure and wisely manage their geofencing resources. A high GES indicates tech platforms and logistics service providers are more competitive over peers still using inaccurate or manual geofencing processes. Calculating your GES is an excellent way to measure your geofencing development costs and accuracy. In this article, tech platforms and intermediaries will understand what a GES is and what it says about your business’s geofencing processes.

What Goes Into Calculating a GES?

Geofencing efficiency measures data accuracy and resource utilization to create a geofencing database. Calculating your GES simply requires inputting information about your company’s geofencing practices. The resulting score can empower you to make the best decisions for your next steps.

Quantity and shape

Data quantity and location shape have the most significant impact on geofencing utilization. The larger the quantity of data needed, the greater the compounding impact of cost inefficiencies and inaccuracy. Therefore, high utilizers have the most to gain from improving their score. The same is true for location shape – circular versus precise polygons. Geofences defined by a point-radius method are frequently used because they are inexpensive to create but are inherently inaccurate. Any cost savings from curating a circular geofencing database is wholly lost on the software performance from inaccurate data. Automated Polygonal geofences, on the other hand, generate larger and more accurate databases at faster rates, giving you the high-efficiency score you seek.

Manual vs. Automatic

Although automated geofencing curation is the preferred industry standard, the manual collection is frequently used due to a lack of awareness. Drawing geofences manually is inefficient and far less reliable, and your GES is affected accordingly:

• Manual processes waste resources and put a team at risk of human error (decrease score)
• Automated processes save money, time, and errors (increase score)
• Processes for maintenance, revisions, and updates are immediately and seamlessly managed in automated systems (increase score)

While automated polygon geofencing is ideal, having any geofencing in place is better than having none. Unfortunately, despite its popularity, not every company has implemented a geofencing process. In this case, a GES cannot be assigned. If your business has not explored geofencing-supported logistics, KI is your partner to help you get started.

What Does a GES score Mean?

GES scoring ranges from 1-100, with 100 being maximum efficiency. Questions are based on industry best practices for utilizing geofencing in transportation logistics.

Kestrel Insights (KI) has a short and straightforward series of questions. KI uses the answers to calculate your GES. Each score is accompanied by an assessment and recommendations of where to make changes to improve the utilization of geofencing.

Why Is Finding Your GES Important?

Geofencing plays a crucial role in modern-day logistics. Calculating your GES strengthens your decision-making in several important ways:

• It helps determine if you are wasting time by manually drawing largely inaccurate geofences.
• It provides the necessary data to evaluate your current geofencing practices objectively.
• It opens the door to an insightful conversation with the experts at Kestrel Insights, who can help you become more competitive with expert logistics data management.

Once you have determined your GES, Kestrel Insights can offer guidance on any visibility software or transportation management system (TMS) you are already using and help you decide whether it has built-in geofencing capabilities. With the results of your efficiency assessment, you can also analyze the potential return on investment with Kestrel Insights and determine whether it would be a better data resource for your business needs.

Leveraging the Power of Accurate Data with Kestrel Insights

Automated geofencing can improve customer satisfaction, tracking services, and data accuracy while saving time and money. By calculating your GES, you can chart the best path forward. Kestrel Insights is available to walk you through your results and help you examine the value of automated polygon geofencing.