Creating and Managing Zones

Zones are geographic boundaries that control how vehicles operate within specific areas. This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know about creating, editing, and managing zones in your Levy Fleets dashboard.

What Are Zones?

Zones in Levy Fleets are GeoJSON polygons that define geographic boundaries with specific rules. These zones enable powerful fleet control features:

• Ride end validation - Controlling where customers can end their rides
• Speed enforcement - Automatically limiting vehicle speed in designated areas
• Access control - Preventing vehicles from operating in restricted areas
• Incentives - Encouraging customers to park in preferred locations
• Service management - Defining operational boundaries for your fleet

Accessing the Zones Page

1. Log in to your Levy Fleets dashboard
2. Navigate to Zones in the left sidebar
3. If you manage multiple subaccounts, ensure the correct subaccount is selected from the subaccount selector

The zones page displays an interactive map with all your configured zones, along with a panel for creating and managing zones.

Understanding Zone Types

Levy Fleets supports seven types of zones, each with specific behaviors and use cases:

Parking Zone (Green)

Purpose: Designates approved areas where customers can end their rides.

Common Uses:

• Designated parking areas near businesses
• Public parking lots
• Transit hubs
• Sidewalk parking zones approved by the city

No-Parking Zone (Red)

Purpose: Blocks ride endings even if the location is within a parking zone.

Common Uses:

• Fire hydrants and emergency access areas
• Construction zones
• Private property
• Loading docks
• Temporary event restrictions

No-Go Zone (Red, with enforcement)

Purpose: Completely restricts vehicle operation within the boundary.

Common Uses:

• Private property where vehicles are not allowed
• Construction sites
• Pedestrian-only plazas
• Areas with temporary restrictions (festivals, events)

Speed Limit Zone (Yellow)

Purpose: Automatically limits vehicle speed within the boundary.

Common Uses:

• Pedestrian-heavy areas (downtown, parks)
• School zones
• Hospital and medical facility areas
• Residential neighborhoods
• Areas with speed limits mandated by local regulations

Charging Zone (Blue)

Purpose: Marks depot or charging station locations.

Common Uses:

• Charging stations and docks
• Fleet storage areas
• Maintenance depots
• Swap station locations

Bonus Zone (Purple/Indigo)

Purpose: Highlights incentivized pickup/drop-off areas for gamification.

Configuration Options:

• Reward Points: Points awarded for ending in this zone (e.g., 50 points)
• Multiplier: Loyalty points multiplier (e.g., 1.5x)
• Preferred Zone: Toggle to mark as a preferred parking location

Common Uses:

• Rebalancing incentive zones
• High-demand pickup locations
• Areas where you want to encourage parking
• Promotional zones during events

Service Area (Cyan/Light Blue)

Purpose: Defines the overall operational boundary for your fleet.

Creating a New Zone

Drawing Tips

• Use satellite view for accuracy (toggle in map controls)
• Zoom in for precise boundary placement
• Keep polygons simple - complex shapes increase processing time
• Snap to features - align zone boundaries to building footprints and street edges to reduce GPS drift issues

Editing Existing Zones

Viewing Zones

The "Existing Zones" section shows all zones for your subaccount:

• Click a zone row to isolate it on the map (hides other zones temporarily)
• Click "Show All Zones" to display all zones again
• Zones are color-coded by type for easy identification

Editing a Zone

1. Click the pencil/edit icon on a zone row in the Existing Zones list
2. The zone editor panel appears with current settings
3. Modify the zone name, type, speed limit, or other settings
4. To redraw the zone boundary:
   • Click "Clear" to remove the current polygon
   • Draw a new polygon using the drawing tools
5. Click "Update Zone" to save changes

Deleting Zones

1. Click the trash/delete icon on a zone row
2. Confirm the deletion in the dialog
3. The zone is soft-deleted (marked with a timestamp)

What happens when you delete a zone:

• The zone is immediately excluded from all ride validations
• Vehicles currently in a deleted speed/no-go zone will have restrictions cleared on next telemetry update
• Historical zone events remain in the database for audit purposes
• The zone can be restored by a database administrator if needed

Customizing Zone Colors

Zone colors can be customized per subaccount to match your branding or improve visibility.

Accessing Color Settings

1. Go to Dashboard -> Settings
2. Scroll to the Zone Colors section
3. Modify hex color values for each zone type

Default Colors

Importing Zones from GeoJSON

For bulk zone creation, Levy Fleets provides a GeoJSON import capability.

GeoJSON File Format

Each file should:

• Be named after the subaccount (e.g., Downtown_Chicago_IL.geojson)
• Contain a FeatureCollection with Polygon features
• Use standard GeoJSON coordinate format [longitude, latitude]

Example Structure:

{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "properties": {
        "badges": {
          "EN": "Main Street Parking"
        }
      },
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Polygon",
        "coordinates": [[[lng, lat], [lng, lat], ...]]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Import Behavior

• Maps filenames to subaccount names automatically
• Skips subaccounts that already have parking zones
• Creates zones with type parking by default
• Uses the badges.EN property for zone names

Best Practices

Naming Conventions

Use consistent naming that includes:

• Location (e.g., "Downtown", "Main St", "City Park")
• Type indicator (e.g., "Parking", "Slow Zone", "No-Go")
• Identifier if multiple similar zones exist (e.g., "P1", "P2", "North", "South")

Examples:

• "Downtown Parking - Main Street"
• "City Hall Loading Dock No-Parking"
• "Pedestrian Plaza Slow Zone 15kph"
• "Private Property No-Go - 123 Oak St"

Zone Design Recommendations

1. Keep polygons simple - Complex shapes with many vertices increase mobile CPU usage and telemetry processing time

2. Use satellite view - Snap zone boundaries to building footprints and street edges to minimize GPS drift complaints

3. Account for GPS accuracy - Leave a small buffer (5-10 meters) around critical boundaries since GPS can have 5-10 meter accuracy variations

4. Avoid overlapping speed zones unnecessarily - When zones overlap, the system picks the lowest speed limit which may not be intended

5. Consider enforcement timing - No-go zones have a 15-second hysteresis; very small zones might not trigger consistently

Testing Zones

Before going live with critical zones:

1. Test with a staff member's device in the actual location
2. Verify the zone appears correctly on the customer mobile app
3. For speed/no-go zones, confirm IoT commands are being sent (check vehicle logs)
4. Review zone events in ride history to ensure proper detection

Role Permissions

Zone management requires specific user roles:

Users with lower roles see a read-only view of zones on the map.

Partner API Access

Partners can access zone data via the Partner API for integration with external systems.

Endpoint

GET /api/partner/v1/zones

Query Parameters

Authentication

Requires a Partner API key in the X-Partner-Api-Key header.

Rate Limits

• 60 requests per minute
• 1,000 requests per hour
• 10,000 requests per day

Troubleshooting

Map Not Loading

Symptoms: Blank area where the map should be, or "Loading map..." message persists

Solutions:

1. Verify Google Maps API key is configured correctly
2. Check that the API key has Maps JavaScript API enabled in Google Cloud Console
3. Verify billing is active on the Google Cloud project
4. Clear browser cache and refresh

Zone Not Appearing on Customer App

Symptoms: Zone created but customers don't see it

Solutions:

1. Ensure the zone is saved (check Existing Zones list)
2. Verify the correct subaccount is selected
3. Customer app may have zone caching - wait a few minutes or have customer refresh
4. Check that zone type is one that appears on customer maps (parking, no-parking, speed-limit)

Drawing Tool Not Working

Symptoms: Can't draw polygons, clicking has no effect

Solutions:

1. Ensure you clicked the polygon tool (pentagon icon) first
2. Check that no existing polygon is being edited (click Clear if needed)
3. Try refreshing the page
4. Verify you have sufficient permissions (Fleet Manager or higher)

Zone Not Enforcing

Symptoms: Speed limit or no-go zone not affecting vehicles

Solutions:

1. Verify the zone type is correct (speed_limit or no_go)
2. Check that the zone polygon accurately covers the intended area
3. For speed zones, verify the speed_limit_kph value is set
4. Confirm vehicles have IoT devices with supported protocols (Segway, OKAI, Omni, Queclink, Zimo)
5. Check that IoT configuration is set up correctly in Settings
6. Review server logs for zone enforcement errors

Ride End Rejected When It Shouldn't Be

Symptoms: Customers getting "not in parking zone" error in valid locations

Solutions:

1. Check for overlapping no-parking zones that might be blocking
2. Verify parking zone validation mode in Settings
3. Ensure the parking zone polygon actually covers the location (GPS drift may place vehicle outside)
4. Consider expanding parking zone boundaries slightly to account for GPS accuracy

What's Next?

• How Zones Work - Technical details on zone evaluation and enforcement
• Speed Limit Zones - Deep dive into speed zone configuration
• Quick Start Guide - Complete setup walkthrough