Geofencing for returnable assets
Draw zones around depots, customers and partner sites. Rotion records when tracked assets enter, leave or linger, and starts the follow-up automatically.
Last updated: 2 October 2026
Geofencing in Rotion turns locations into actions. You draw zones around depots, customers, partner sites and yards. When a tracked asset enters a zone, leaves it, or stays longer than it should, Rotion records the event and starts the follow-up: a status change, a reminder, or a pickup task. Nobody has to watch a map.
What is a geofence in Rotion?
A geofence is a zone on the map tied to a place in your loop: your own depot, a customer's site, a carrier's hub, a washing partner. Each zone knows which partner it belongs to, so an asset entering it can move to that partner's custody, and an asset leaving it can be expected somewhere else.
Zones work alongside scans. A scan confirms who handled an asset; a zone event says where it went in between. Both land in the same digital packaging passport.
Which assets can use geofencing?
Geofencing needs a position, so it applies to assets that report one: assets with a GPS tracker, and assets with BLE child tags that report through a nearby parent tracker. On your own sites, BLE gateways place assets in zones as well. Assets tracked only by QR code or passive RFID get their location from the place of the last scan or read instead.
What can a zone trigger?
| Event | Typical follow-up |
|---|---|
| Asset enters a customer zone | Custody moves to the customer, the return clock starts |
| Asset leaves your depot | Shipment marked as departed, expected arrival set |
| Asset stays in a zone past its limit | Reminder to the partner, then a pickup task |
| Asset appears in a zone where it is not expected | Exception flagged for the fleet team |
| Asset returns to your depot | Return recorded, ready for inspection or washing |
The limits are set per zone and per asset type, so a roller cage at a store and an IBC at a filler can each have their own dwell time.
How does geofencing help recover assets?
Most losses start as assets that stay somewhere too long. With zones, an asset idling at a partner past its limit surfaces on its own, with the partner and the time it arrived. Reminders and pickup tasks follow automatically, and the dwell time per partner shows which locations hold your fleet back. See the five-stage reuse loop for where those exceptions fit.
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