Introduction to HERE Geofencing API

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Note
Geofencing is only available under asset-based licenses. For information on Geofencing licenses please contact your HERE account executive.

The HERE Geofencing API is a REST API that allows you to track whether an asset is located within specified geographic areas. An asset is any kind of trackable object, such as a person, car, smartphone, or delivery package.

You can define the geographic areas as geometries in the form of geographic polygons, polylines, or points that are relevant for these assets.

You can also choose to check the asset's position against map layers such as country boundaries, postal code boundaries, or census boundary layers.

Geofences can be custom-defined objects, but the HERE Geofencing API also enables geofencing across HERE map content. Refer to the Map Attributes Developer Guide to get HERE map layers.

The table below lists the high-level use cases for the HERE Geofencing API.

Use case	Description
Close access to certain areas in cities	Based on various requirements, you can specify areas in a city as no-go areas for assets at certain times of the day or week. For example, you may want the assets to avoid areas with heavy traffic during peak hours. For each asset group, you specify a static set of polygons where the assets and/or management system is alerted if the asset approaches or enters the no-go area. These polygons can have individually defined validity periods.
Alert the warehouse 15 minutes before an asset arrives	To prepare for a delivery, warehouses want to be notified when an asset, such as a truck, is less than 15 minutes away. The isochrone polygons around each warehouse can be static or dynamic. A static isoline polygon is computed using reverse isoline routing via the HERE Routing API v8. A dynamic isoline polygon is defined according to a weekly recurring traffic pattern or current live traffic situation. The validity period for each polygon can be the warehouse's opening hours.
Alert the end user 15 minutes before a package arrives	To prepare for a postal or drone delivery, end users want to be notified when an asset, such as a delivery truck, person, or a drone, is less than 15 minutes away. End users are entered as isochrone polygons as soon as the delivery process starts. Each asset is then checked against one user polygon.
Notify taxi service if there are less than five cars within a hot spot polygon	In the vicinity of a train station or a stadium after a big event, there should be sufficient cars within three minutes distance to be ordered by users. In this case, many static and a few dynamic polygons are defined. The alerts are not for individual assets but for the total number of assets within a polygon. Fleet management systems must maintain the number of polygons themselves and trigger alerts in case of an underflow.
Alert a consumer when he or she is close to a shop	While the asset, such as a car driver or a pedestrian, is moving, an advertisement alerts the consumer if a particular shop or restaurant is close by. The validity period for each static polygon or point can be the shop or restaurant's opening hours.
Notify a car rental agency if an asset enters a forbidden country or area	Certain groups of rental cars have a restricted set of countries or areas where their use is permitted, due to insurance or security reasons. In this case, you can define a few static polygons that extend across a large geographic area with a fine grained resolution (number of vertices) per asset group. Or, you can use the existing PDE country boundary layer as geofences.

For information on:

How to quickly set up and start using the HERE Geofencing API, see Get started with HERE Geofencing API v8.
How to get support, see the Developer Support FAQ.