RFID vs Bluetooth vs GPS Asset Trackers: What Each One Needs

RFID vs Bluetooth asset trackers: what is the difference?

An RFID tag is seen only where you install a reader, and a crowdsourced Bluetooth tag is reported by any phone that passes. So an RFID record shows where an asset last passed one of your readers. A tag shows where a phone last reported it, which can be a road, a customer yard or your own site.

A crowdsourced tag sends a Bluetooth signal, and any phone that passes reports where it heard it. Apple counts over a billion iPhone, iPad and Mac devices in its network. Google counts over a billion Android devices in its own. The guide to how a crowdsourced network works covers the steps.

RFID vs Bluetooth asset tracking: readers or passing phones?

RFID relies on readers, and a crowdsourced tag relies on phones that already pass. A passive RFID tag has no battery of its own. It replies using the energy in the reader's signal, as the NIST guide to RFID systems explains. So it is only seen at the moment it passes a reader.

That is why RFID needs a reader at every choke point. Fixed readers sit at dock doors and gates, and tagged items pass through them. Anywhere else, someone walks up with a handheld and scans.

A crowdsourced tag works the other way round. It carries its own small battery, so nobody scans it and you install nothing. The figure compares the two on one pallet's trip, from your dock door to a customer.

Every returnable container or pallet you send out makes this trip. No reader of yours sees it after your dock. A tag on it is reported wherever phones pass, at the customer site and on the way back.

Does a Bluetooth tag need GPS or a data plan?

No. The tag never works out its own position, so it needs no GPS receiver and no data plan. The phone that hears it adds its own location to the report.

A GPS tracker has to do both jobs itself. The satellites only broadcast a one-way signal, and GPS.gov notes that they track nothing on the ground. So the tracker works out its own position, then sends it over its own data connection. That takes power in every unit and a plan for each one.

Power means wiring into a machine, or a battery powered GPS tracker charged every few weeks or months. A tag's battery lasts up to six years, depending on its size. There is nothing to wire and nothing to charge.

RFID vs GPS asset tracking: where does the setup work go?

RFID puts its setup work in readers, GPS puts it in every unit, and a crowdsourced tag needs neither. RFID needs a reader at every door, dock or gate you want to see. Fixed readers need power and a network link to send their reads. Someone has to fit them, and each new site needs its own.

With GPS, the work sits in every unit. Each tracker needs its own hardware, power and data plan. Add a unit and you add a plan.

A crowdsourced tag puts that work on phones that already exist. You pay for the tags and the equipment tracking software that shows their reports. There is no reader to fit and no plan per unit, so a new site needs nothing installed.

What to expect from a crowdsourced tag

Expect a dated location record for every tagged asset, on your site and off it.

• Updates come from passing phones. Any phone that passes reports the tag. A busy dock or road updates often. A remote site with few visitors updates less often.
• Building-level position. The position comes from the phone that heard the tag. It gets you to the right building, yard or customer site, and the asset number does the rest.
• Location, not sensor data. A tag reports where an asset is, not its temperature or engine hours. A dashboard records when it reached a site and when it left.
• Where, not who. A report shows where an asset was and when. An equipment sign-out sheet records who took it.