A Recap of Kestrel Insights on #TheFreightCoach Podcast

Listen to Co-Founder of Kestrel Insights, Lucas Schorer, join #TheFreightCoach Podcast, hosted by #TheFreightCoach himself, Chris Jolly.

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Lucas Schorer, the co-founder of Kestrel Insights, recently joined host Chris Jolly for an episode of Coffee with #TheFreightCoach podcast. In this interview, Schorer discussed how his company, a premier provider of automated polygon geofencing to the logistics industry, helps logistics tech platform and operating companies save time and money. Everything from innovations to improving accuracy, building better tracking processes, enabling better trace notifications, and enhancing customer satisfaction is possible with Kestrel Insights’ innovative approach to geofencing. But how does it work, and what impact does it have?

Geofences and What They Are

Kestrel Insights specializes in geofence technology, an innovative tracking process that involves drawing digital fences around targeted destinations. These virtual fences act like invisible barriers sometimes used to keep pets in a yard. When delivery vehicles and drivers cross the border of a geofence, customers receive an alert that the truck has arrived and the delivery is about to be made. This technology allows shipping companies to track orders in real-time and improve visibility during the shipping process.

“Kestrel Insights came from the need for better visibility and tighter control over geofence tracking technology. Ultimately, it came from the lack of visibility and how I think a lot of these platforms and tools were meant to help people, track vehicles, automate notifications, and so forth,” Schorer said. “It was a blitz at the technology with everyone trying to capitalize on the new trending thing. And, when the dust settled, and people started looking into it, they were like, okay, how accurate is this stuff really?”

Kestrel Insights looks to improve geofencing accuracy and advance the platforms people are already working on daily. Working from the basic idea of a polygon geofence being essentially a virtual boundary anywhere on earth, they work to improve the accuracy of freight tracking using these innovative tools and digital platforms.

Problems With Old Outdated Methods of Tracking

The benefit of geofencing is its flexibility and adaptability. “You can draw it around anything you need to monitor,” Schorer shared with Jolly and the listeners during the podcast. “A distribution center, a port, you can even draw it around your backyard. The value of these geofences comes from the accuracy of what they’re related to. And specifically for freight, you can use it to understand when cargo arrives, how long it is on-site, and when the trucks leave.”

But at this basic level, with these three simple yet vital timestamps, traditional geofencing fails to provide the necessary visibility and insight. Often, geofences are drawn around large areas and can even extend for miles outside the actual border of the target destination. Circles are the most common shape used to make the geofences, which often leaves areas of the target zone completely unmonitored and can include large areas not technically part of the target destination.

Schorer described geofencing this way. Suppose you have a warehouse on a property covering approximately one square mile. If a freight professional or manager draws a circle with a 2–3-mile radius, the property is included, but so is a lot of space outside that target area. A truck could be sitting at a rest area 2 miles away, and the shipping company will get a ping saying the delivery has arrived, yet the customer is calling to complain the delivery has not been made. Similar issues occur with widespread target areas or significant gaps and spaces between key hubs and places of interest. Traditional geofencing doesn’t consider this and results in inaccurate tracking and alerts.

Using polygon geofencing as Kestrel Insights does allows users to get exact polygon fences and tracking points. Rather than a generic circle that may or may not provide an accurate tracking picture, precise borders fit the exact location perimeter. No more estimating and hoping that the geofence border matches the actual location border. With this innovative, automated polygon geofencing data offered aat scale, the worries and inaccuracies of traditional geofencing are a thing of the past.

Get Custom Geofencing Points For Your Needed Locations With Kestrel Insights

Kestrel Insights can help freight professionals and logistics tech platforms of all sizes avoid these false tracking alerts and get a true and accurate picture of where loads are and when deliveries are actually being made. They provide custom locations, and customers can get geofences for 10, 1,000, or 10,000 locations, or however many points of interest they need to tackle with this innovative tech platform. These reference points can include airports, distribution hubs, ocean ports, trucking yards, warehouses, retail shops, end customers, and any other point along the supply chain that can be added to their geofencing database quickly and easily.

“The ultimate goal is building trust and reliability between drivers and shippers, so everyone involved in a shipment knows what is going on and when,” Schorer pointed out. “It helps shippers and drivers communicate and verifies work is being done when, where, and how it should be in real-time.  Geofencing in logistics make tracking orders, protecting cargo against theft, finding misplaced or stolen cargo, and monitoring drivers and shipments easier. “  Kestrel Insights continues to improve its database, adding more locations daily and partnering with more shippers and industry leaders.  Contact Kestrel Insights today to learn more about geofencing and take advantage of this new and innovative technology.