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How to use zones (geofences) in Track My Ride

Create virtual boundaries to track when vehicles enter or leave important locations, and automatically classify journeys as business or private.

Zones (also called geofences) are virtual boundaries you draw on the map around important locations. Track My Ride can then notify you when vehicles enter or leave these areas, and automatically classify journeys as business or private for your tax records.

What you can do with zones:

  • Get alerted when vehicles arrive at or leave locations
  • Automatically classify journeys for tax logbooks
  • Track time spent at customer sites
  • Monitor when staff arrive at work
  • Know when vehicles leave your depot
  • See when equipment arrives at job sites
  • Create boundaries around restricted areas

Perfect for:

  • Tax logbook automation (mark home as private, work as business)
  • Customer visit tracking
  • Depot arrival/departure notifications
  • Job site time tracking
  • Fleet security (alerts if vehicles leave approved areas)

What is a zone?

A zone is a custom-shaped area you draw on the map. Think of it like drawing a fence around a location on Google Maps. Once created, Track My Ride knows whenever a vehicle crosses that invisible boundary.

Zone shapes: You can create any shape you want - simple rectangles, complex polygons, or shapes that follow property boundaries perfectly.

Zone types:

  • Business zones - Work locations, customer sites, depots
  • Private zones - Home addresses, personal locations

How to create a zone

Creating a zone is like drawing with dots on the map. Each click adds a corner, and when you click the first dot again, the zone is complete.

Step-by-step:

  1. Click the Zones icon in the top right corner (looks like a location pin with a fence)
    • On mobile, this appears as a pentagon shape
  2. Click the + New button
  3. Draw your zone by clicking on the map
    • Each click adds a corner to your zone
    • The zone appears as a shaded area as you draw
    • You can have as many corners as you need
  4. Complete the shape by clicking on the first point again
    • You'll see a message saying "Click first point to close the zone"
  5. Fill in the zone details:
    • Name: Give it a clear name (e.g., "Home", "Brisbane Depot", "Customer ABC")
    • Logbook: Choose Business or Private
    • Outline/Fill: Choose colours for the zone border and fill (optional styling)
  6. The zone saves automatically as you edit it
  7. Click the X to close the zone editor

Done! Your zone is now active.

Business vs Private zones

This classification is crucial for automatic tax logbook creation.

Business zones

Mark these locations as Business:

  • Your workplace/office
  • Company depots
  • Customer locations
  • Job sites
  • Business meetings locations
  • Suppliers/vendors you visit

What it does: Journeys that start or end in business zones are automatically marked as business trips.

Private zones

Mark these locations as Private:

  • Your home address
  • Driver home addresses
  • Personal locations (gym, shops, family homes)
  • Anywhere that's not work-related

What it does: Journeys that start or end in private zones are automatically marked as private trips.

Creating alerts for zones

Once you've created a zone, you can set up alerts to be notified when vehicles enter or leave.

To create a zone alert:

  1. Create your zone first (follow steps above)
  2. Go to the Alerts page
  3. Click + New Alert
  4. Choose alert type:
    • Entering a zone - Triggers when vehicle enters
    • Leaving a zone - Triggers when vehicle exits
  5. Criteria: Select your zone name
  6. Vehicle or Mobile Device: Choose which vehicles/drivers trigger this alert
    • Select specific vehicles, or
    • "All vehicles and devices" for fleet-wide alerts
  7. Set Alert Status to Enabled
  8. Click Save

You'll now receive notifications (email, SMS, or in-app) when this zone boundary is crossed.

Note: For detailed alert setup instructions, see our separate article on "Setting up alerts".

How automatic journey classification works

When you mark zones as Business or Private, Track My Ride uses them to automatically classify your journeys in reports.

How it determines classification:

The system checks if a journey's start point or end point falls within a zone:

  • Journey starts or ends in a Business zone = Business journey
  • Journey starts or ends in a Private zone = Private journey
  • Journey starts and ends outside all zones = Uses your default setting

Priority order: You can control which classification method takes priority (zones, rosters, or reservations) in your Application Settings. See our "Application Settings" guide for details.

Tax logbook automation

This is one of the most valuable features of zones for Australian businesses!

How it works:

  1. Create a Private zone around your home
  2. Create Business zones around your workplace and regular customer sites
  3. Track My Ride automatically classifies each journey
  4. At tax time, run a Journey Report with all trips correctly categorised
  5. Give the report to your accountant - done!

What you get:

  • Automatic classification of every trip
  • Accurate distance tracking for each journey
  • Complete records for ATO compliance
  • No manual logbook keeping
  • No forgetting to record trips

Tip: Set up zones at the start of the financial year for a full year of automatic records.

Editing zone details

Need to rename a zone or change it from Business to Private?

To edit zone details:

  1. Click the Zones icon in the top right corner
  2. Click inside the zone you want to edit
  3. The zone editor opens - make your changes:
    • Change the name
    • Switch between Business/Private
    • Change the colours
  4. Changes save automatically
  5. Click the X to close

Editing a zone's shape

Made the zone too small? Need to adjust the boundaries?

To edit the zone shape:

  1. Click the Zones icon in the top right corner
  2. Click the Edit button (pencil icon)
    • On mobile, look for the pencil icon
  3. The zone now shows draggable corner points
  4. Drag any corner to move it to a new position
  5. Add a new corner: Click and drag the middle of any line (the greyed-out square)
  6. Adjust as many corners as needed
  7. Click Save to keep changes (or Cancel to undo)
  8. Click the X to close zone mode

Tip: Use satellite view when editing shapes to align with property boundaries.

Deleting a zone

Removing a zone you no longer need is simple.

To delete a zone:

  1. Click the Zones icon in the top right corner
  2. Click the Delete button (garbage bin icon)
  3. Click inside any zone you want to delete
    • The zone will show a dashed outline when selected for deletion
  4. Click Save to confirm deletion (or Cancel to undo)

Warning: Deleting a zone is permanent. Any alerts using that zone will stop working.

What happens to old journey data? Past journeys that were classified using this zone will keep their classification. Only future journeys are affected.

Viewing zones on the map

To see all your zones on the main map:

  1. Open the Map page
  2. Click Map Options (three horizontal lines icon)
  3. Turn on Zones layer
  4. All zones now appear on your map

To hide zones:

  • Turn off the Zones layer in Map Options

Remember: You can save "Zones layer: ON" as your default in Application Settings so zones always show.

Buffer zones

Create zones slightly larger than the actual location to catch arrivals even if GPS isn't perfect.

Example: If your office is a small building, draw the zone to include the car park and nearby streets. This ensures arrivals are registered even if GPS shows the vehicle 20 metres away.

Negative zones (exclusion zones)

Create a business zone around areas where vehicles should NOT go, then set up an alert for "entering zone" to be notified if they do.

Example: Competitor locations, restricted areas, or unsafe regions.