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How do asset tracking tags work without a data plan?
An asset tracking tag broadcasts a Bluetooth signal, and any phone that passes reports where it heard the tag. It needs no GPS receiver and no data plan. Printed barcode or QR asset tags tell you what an item is when someone scans them. A tracking tag can carry the same printed ID, and it also shows where the item is and where it has been.
Any GPS tracker needs two things: power and a data plan. It works out its own position and sends every report itself, so each unit carries its own data plan. It also needs wiring into a power supply, or a battery that someone charges every few weeks or months. That is why tracking used to stop at the machines worth that effort.
An asset tracking tag needs neither. Passing phones do the reporting. These crowdsourced networks are large (Apple counts over a billion iPhone, iPad and Mac devices, and Google over a billion Android devices).
The tag is small enough for a tool case. It runs on its own battery for up to six years, depending on its size. There is no wiring and nothing to charge.
Updates follow people. A tag on a busy yard or jobsite updates all through the working day. One in a locked yard overnight updates less often, and picks up again when people return.
What is inside an asset tracking tag?
Most tracking tags are built from the same four parts, and each one sets a different limit. Pick a part in the figure to see what it decides.
Steel blocks the antenna's signal, so the tag reports best with a clear way out. Put it on an outward-facing panel, near a hinge gap, behind a plastic panel or on the outside of a steel box. The other three parts get a section each below.
How to mount asset tracking tags on metal, plastic and wood
Choose the fastening by the material the tag goes on. The best public reference for foam tape is 3M's surface preparation bulletin for its VHB tapes. Clean metal bonds after a wipe with isopropyl alcohol and water.
Polypropylene and polyethylene need a primer or flame treatment first. Many tool cases, totes and bins are made of these two plastics. On those, a screw, a tie or a spot inside the case is simpler than tape.
3M's data sheet for VHB 5952 shows the bond building over three days at room temperature. It reaches about 50% after 20 minutes, 90% after 24 hours and 100% after 72 hours. It suggests applying the tape at no less than 10 to 15 °C (50 to 60 °F). Once bonded it holds in the cold, so mount a winter batch in a warm shop and leave it a day before it goes out.
The table below reads from the surface you have to the method that holds on it.
| Surface | Method | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Steel and aluminum | Foam tape after an alcohol wipe, or the screw mount | Oily metal needs a degreaser before the wipe |
| Painted or powder-coated metal | Foam tape, pressed down hard | Some paints bond poorly, so test one tag first |
| Polypropylene or polyethylene case, tote, bin | Screw, tie, or put the tag inside | Tape without primer holds at first, then lets go |
| Wood, plywood, ladder rails | Screw, or a tie through a drilled hole | Tape needs the wood sealed first |
| Glass | Foam tape | Moisture can creep under the bond over time |
| Rubber, flexible PVC, fabric | A tie, a strap or a sewn pocket | Oils and plasticizers weaken tape; fabric gives it nothing to grip |
| Greasy machine frame | Screw mount, or a tie as backup | Oil comes back faster than you can clean it |
Check which fixings a tag takes before you plan the mount. A tag that takes only an adhesive pad belongs inside a case, a bag or a cab. On anything that vibrates, gets degreased or lives outdoors, use a screw mount. Holders and mounts covers the fixings in more detail.
For hand and power tools, the case is often a better home than the tool. The tool tracking system guide goes through it one tool class at a time. On a trailer, the mount also has to stay out of a thief's sight. The trailer tracking system guide marks six spots that stay hidden and keep reporting.
What do the two digits of an IP rating mean?
An IP code has two digits under IEC 60529, dust first and water second. That is the whole promise: two lab tests, with nothing about heat, cold, sunlight, chemicals, or a housing that has been dropped on concrete.
Past 6, the water digit stops being a ladder. Jet tests and immersion tests are separate tests, and each rating on a tag spec sheet covers one kind of water. All five below are dust-tight; only the water test changes.
- IP65 was tested against water jets. Good for rain and a hose-down in an open yard.
- IP66 was tested against powerful water jets. Good for heavy spray and hose jets, not immersion.
- IP67 was tested in up to 1 m (3.3 ft) of water for 30 minutes. Good for puddles and a brief dunk.
- IP68 was tested in continuous immersion beyond 1 m (3.3 ft), to a depth and time the maker states. Good for anything that stays wet.
- IP69 was tested against high-pressure hot water from different angles. Good for wash-down bays and food plants.
A product rated 7 or 8 for immersion is not assumed to pass the jet tests. It needs both codes, such as IPX6/IPX7, as Easy-Laser's summary of IEC 60529 sets out.
So a tag rated IP68 covers rain, mud and a dunk, but not a pressure-washer lance at close range. On assets that get washed down every week, mount the tag where the spray does not reach. Keep an unrated tag inside, where it stays dry.
The guide to outdoor and waterproof use works through submersion and wash-down cases.
What does an IP rating leave out?
An IP rating leaves out solvents, sunlight, drops, vibration and cold. It covers only dust and water. Cold is a battery question, covered in the next section.
- Degreasers and solvents. They reach the adhesive long before they hurt the housing, so anything that gets degreased needs a screw mount or a tie.
- Sunlight. It is hard on ordinary cable ties. Outdoors, use ties sold as UV stabilized for long-term outdoor use, such as HellermannTyton's PA66UV ties.
- Drops and vibration. A seal that passed the lab test has not been dropped on concrete or ridden a compactor for a month. Re-check those mounts after the first month on the machine.
How long does the battery last, and how cold can it get?
An asset tracking tag runs for up to six years, depending on its size. The cell sets the run time. A CR2032 coin cell lasts up to a year. A larger CR2477 lasts up to three years, and a pair of ER14250 cells up to six.
The cell also sets how cold the tag can get. Energizer rates its CR2032, the coin cell in many small tags, at -30 °C to 60 °C (-22 °F to 140 °F). Saft rates its LS 14250, a lithium thionyl chloride cell in the ER14250 format, at -60 °C to 85 °C (-76 °F to 185 °F). Those are cell ratings rather than tag ratings, but for freezers and winter yards they point to the ER14250 cell.
If the tag rides on something that comes back to your bench, like a case or a cart, a coin cell is fine. Change it while the item is in your hands. If reaching the tag means a trip out to the asset, pick a tag on ER14250 cells, so nobody makes that trip every year.
How to number and label a new batch of tags
A labeling convention prevents the expensive failure: a bin of tags nobody can match back to an asset. Run this sequence when a batch lands on the bench, before anything leaves the building.
- Fix the ID format before the tags arrive. A short prefix for asset type or site plus a number with leading zeros, like TRL-014, sorts correctly and fits a small label. Leave room for far more tags than this first batch.
- Print the ID, not the asset description, and print it twice: once on the tag and once on the asset in a different spot. A label naming an expensive tool tells a thief which box to take. The second label matches a tag that fell off in a van back to its asset.
- Pair and record at the bench in one pass: tag, your ID and the asset serial. Pairing at the jobsite, or later from memory, is where mix-ups start.
- Photograph the tag in place once it is mounted. A year later that photo answers where on the machine the tag went.
- Retire numbers permanently. When TRL-014 is scrapped, the next trailer is TRL-041, never a second TRL-014, because a reused ID mixes two assets' histories.
A tag can outlive the asset it was fixed to. When the asset is sold, pull the tag and mark its ID dead. When the tag survives a scrapped asset, rename and relabel it before it goes on the next one.
When an asset is stolen, export its history straight away, because that timeline is the record police and an insurer are likely to want. The police report runs on the serial you recorded at the bench. The stolen tool and equipment recovery playbook covers the first hour after a theft.
Running many tags as a fleet covers the day-to-day side. The equipment tracking system guide matches a tag to each kind of asset.
What to expect from asset tracking tags
Each asset tracking tag keeps a dated location record for the case, cart or machine it is on.
- Updates come from passing phones. Any phone that passes reports the tag. A tag on a remote site updates when someone next comes by, or when the asset moves somewhere busier. The GPS tracker for construction equipment guide covers sites that sit empty.
- Building-level position. The position comes from the phone that heard the tag. It gets you to the right yard, truck or building, and the label on the asset does the rest.
- Steel needs a way out. On an outward-facing panel or near a gap, a tag on a steel machine reports like any other. Sealed inside a steel box, it is heard less often.
- Where and when. A tag records where an asset was seen and when. Engine hours and temperature are outside what it reads.
- A hidden tag stays on. A tag in plain view can be pulled off. Mount it out of sight, and the second label still ties the asset to its ID.
Frequently asked questions
What are asset tracking tags?
Asset tracking tags are small tags fixed to equipment, cases or bins so you can see where each item is and where it has been. A crowdsourced tag has no GPS and no data plan. It broadcasts a Bluetooth signal, and any phone that passes reports where it heard the tag.
What is the difference between an asset tag and an asset tracking tag?
An asset tag is usually a printed barcode or QR label that identifies an item when someone scans it. An asset tracking tag shows where the item is and where it has been. Print the asset ID on the tracking tag as well, and it identifies the item too.
Does a tracking tag need Wi-Fi or a cell signal?
No. The tag has no Wi-Fi or cellular radio of its own. It broadcasts over Bluetooth, and the phone that passes sends the location over its own connection.
How long does an asset tracking tag battery last?
An asset tracking tag runs for up to six years, depending on its size. The larger the cell, the longer it runs, so a tag you cannot easily reach should carry the largest one.
Are asset tracking tags waterproof?
Only tags rated IP67 or IP68 are. IP67 was tested in up to 1 m (3.3 ft) of water for 30 minutes, and IP68 deeper, to a depth the maker states. Neither covers water jets unless the tag also carries a jet rating, such as IPX6. Keep a tag with no water rating somewhere it stays dry.
What is the best way to attach a tracking tag to a tool?
For most hand and power tools, put the tag in the case, bag or gang box the tool travels in rather than on the tool. Where it must go on the item, match the method to the surface. Use foam tape on clean metal, and a screw or cable tie on polypropylene cases, wood and anything that vibrates.
How do I attach a tag to something that vibrates?
Use the screw mount or a stainless band, because tape alone will not last. That goes for a compactor, a generator or anything bolted to a diesel engine. If the tag only takes adhesive, add a UV-stabilized tie over the top so the tag stays captive when the bond lets go. Re-check the mount after the first month.
Where on a machine should the tag go?
On an outward-facing panel, clear of the metal mass and out of the way of hands. Steel weakens the signal, so a tag deep inside a frame or a closed steel box reports less often. Avoid exhaust heat, wash-down lances and anywhere a boot lands, and photograph the spot once the tag is mounted.
What should I do when a tag stops reporting?
Check its neighbors first. If other tags in the same place still report, look at that tag's battery, its mount or a steel enclosure. If none of them report, fewer phones pass there, and the tags update again when people come back.
How much does it cost to run asset tracking tags?
Running asset tracking tags costs the tag and the tracking software, with no data plan per tag. A GPS tracker means the hardware and a data plan for every unit. Without a plan per tag, it is practical to tag cases, carts and bins as well as the big machines.
Tag the first batch properly
Tell us what the tags go on and how those assets get cleaned. We will suggest a tag and a mount for each one.