Geofences, generically, are virtual boundaries on a map that represent a geographic area of the real world. In the CalAmp application, we more specifically use these virtual perimeters to define locations of interest to your organization you can use to monitor asset and driver activity. Geofences can be used for job sites, where vehicle activity is prohibited, where community complaints are an issue, where you particularly need to monitor the speed of your vehicles — basically, for any region pertinent to your drivers or company.
Note: In legacy iOn, we used the term landmark to refer to the site of importance to your organization, and geofences just as the geocoded border drawn in the software, but customers found the use of both terms confusing and unnecessary. (Plus, the terms were sometimes used interchangeably within the legacy platform, adding to the confusion.) In response, we streamlined the usage in the current application to solely geofence, which now refers to both the area and its polygonal shape on the map — although you will see some lingering references to landmark even in the new site.
Note: When you create a geofence, you select whether they will generate geofence events, the notices to CalAmp that vehicles have entered or exited them. You can view these on the Geofence Events screen. (See Geofence Events.)
In addition, you can set up a geofence alert that will notify a supervisor by email or text (and on the Notifications panel) when your assets/drivers enter and exit the boundaries. (See Adding a Notification [Alert].) For details on how to view your geofence notifications, go to Viewing Notifications and Marking Them As Read.
You can view your geofences on either the Admin - Geofences screen (see Viewing Your Geofences) or the Tracking screen; for the latter, follow these steps:
- On the sidebar menu on the left, click .
The Tracking screen will open.
By default, the geofence view is turned off, so your geofences may not be visible when the map first appears.
- To turn the geofence view on, click on the vertical toolbar at the top right of the map.
The Map Layers widget will appear.
- Click the Geofence toggle to select it. ( means selected, and deselected.)
Your geofences will appear on the map.
- You can change your geofence view settings with the Geofence Map Layers options, which should have expanded when you selected the Geofence toggle. (If not, click the Geofence to expand the widget.)
The Geofence options are as follows:
- Opacity: You can click and drag the slider to set the level of opaqueness for the map drawings of the borders — to the right for darker and to the left for lighter (100% being the darkest).
- Border Only: Selecting this toggle will turn off the shading in the interior of your geofences (showing only the borders). ( means selected, and deselected.)
- Geofence Label: If this is selected, the geofences will be labeled with their names (when you are zoomed in on them to a value of 1 mile or less on the map scale at the bottom right of the screen).
Note: The Geofence settings will persist across user sessions, so if you enable geofence visibility and then log out, when you log back in again, you will continue to be able to see your geofences. This is true for your Opacity, Border Only, and Geofence Label selections as well.
- Opacity: You can click and drag the slider to set the level of opaqueness for the map drawings of the borders — to the right for darker and to the left for lighter (100% being the darkest).
- You can click and drag the map and zoom in or out (using or on the bottom-right vertical toolbar) to better see the geofences you want.
Note: Alternatively, you can apply a Geofence filter to focus in on the ones you want to view, as shown in Saving an Asset or Geofence View as a Filter. - If you click a geofence, a pop-up will appear with details about it, including its name, assigned group, Entrance/Exit trigger, whether it's restricted (meaning that only certain users can see it, for security purposes), and its description.
You can click to locate fleet vehicles that are near the geofence. (See Finding Nearby Assets.)
You can click to modify the geofence. (See Editing a Geofence on the Tracking Screen for details.)
Note: As mentioned above, you can view only certain geofences by filtering for them: At the top of the page, click the Geofences drop-down arrow (or the More Filters drop-down arrow and then Geofences, depending on your screen width), select the geofences' check boxes, and click Done. (See Saving an Asset or Geofence View as a Filter for more details.)