The Kura driver app is used to identify entry and exit of geofences, as well as the location of the vehicle every 30 seconds. This is done by Kura using the operating system of the device.
Ensuring Entry and Exit of a Geofence:
In order for a vehicle to be registered in a geo-fence, 80% of the vehicle’s location radius must be within the geofence.
To then have an exit registered, less than 20% of the area of circle of the vehicle’s location must remain within the geofence area as shown below.
Mobile Device Limitations
Kura is dependent upon the mobile operating system providing location and identification of entry and exit from geofences.
Mobile operating systems such as Android and IOS employ several techniques that may affect the recording of geofences. If the vehicle arrives in the geofence, but Kura does not register the vehicle as entering or exiting the geofence, then the areas below are to be investigated.
- Accurate location isn't available inside your geofence or your geofence is too small. On most devices, the geofence service uses only network location for geofence to be registered. This approach is used because network location consumes much less power, it takes less time to get discrete locations, and it’s available indoors.
- Wi-Fi is turned off on the device. Having Wi-Fi on can significantly improve the location accuracy, so if Wi-Fi is turned off, Kura might never get geofence alerts depending on several settings including the radius of the geofence, the device model, or the Android version. Where possible enable “Wi-Fi scan only mode” which allows users to disable Wi-Fi but still get a good network location.
- There is no reliable network connectivity inside your geofence. If there is no reliable data connection, alerts might not be generated. This is because the geofence function depends on the network location provider which in turn requires a data connection
- Alerts can be late. The geofence function doesn't continuously query for location, so expect some delay when receiving alerts. Usually, the delay is less than 2 minutes, even less when the device has been moving. If background location limits* are in effect, the delay can be 2-3 minutes on average. If the device has been stationary for a significant period, the delay may increase (up to 6 minutes).
* Background location limits are utilised by mobile operating system providers to ensure that apps that are not currently active receive reduced access to location and geofence data to conserve battery power. Always ensure that the Kura driver app is in the foreground and the active app in use when recording a journey.
Geofence triggering is affected heavily by mobile device configuration. Each device depends on the connectivity status, location status and permissions granted.
General troubleshooting steps on every device:
If a device is not allowing the service to be tracked as it should, these are some common things to check that could resolve the issue:
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Check that there is reliable network connectivity inside your geofence. |
Try connecting to www.ridekura.com to check connectivity.
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Check that mobile data is turned on. |
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Check that Wi-Fi data is turned on |
This changes the Geofence triggering drastically as it is used for triangulation |
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Check that Location is turned on. |
If the app doesn't have location services running, no location can be gathered. |
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Check that the location permission for Kura is enabled. |
Even if the device has the location enabled, the app can have the permission either as “Denied” or “When In Use”. “Always” is the recommended setting for Kura |
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Check that the notification permission for the Kura app is enabled. |
If no notifications can be invoked, devices will not get any local or remote push notifications. |
Operating system dependant configurations:
Both Android and iOS will require different ways to be configured. Please see below the guides on how to ensure each system is configured correctly.
On iOS:
The Kura app requires location as "always", to control the "background App refresh" and usage of Mobile data:
Even if the App has all the permissions granted, the master switch of Background App Refresh must be active for the Kura App:
"Background app refresh" has to be enabled within the app config itself. If not, the app will not trigger actions unless it's in the foreground.
On Android:
Permissions must be requested by the developer (Kura) and granted by the user to the App.
Location must be set to "Balanced" or "High Accuracy". On "Device Only" Geofences are not triggered.