Linear referencing can be used to define points along a linear feature with just a small amount of information such as the name of a road and the distance and bearing from a landmark along the road. This information can be communicated concisely via plaintext. For example: "State route 4, 20 feet east of mile marker 187." Giving a latitude and longitude coordinate to a work crew is not meaningful unless the coordinate is plotted on a map. Often work crews work in remote areas without wireless connectivity which makes on-line digital maps not practical, and the relatively higher effort of providing offline maps or printed maps is not as economical as simply stating locations as offsets, or ranges of offsets, along a linear feature.