Fleet Asset Tracking for the Gear That Rides on Your Trucks

What is fleet asset tracking?

It is tracking the equipment that moves with a fleet, as well as the vehicles. Trailers, generators, compressors, ladders, pumps, and tool and meter cases are all fleet assets. Each truck carries several, and they move between trucks, sites and the yard.

Tracking used to stop at the trucks. A truck has an engine and a power supply to run a tracker, and the Samsara pricing guide shows what that costs per vehicle. A ladder on the rack or a meter case behind the seat has nothing to wire into, so the gear was left out.

Every question about the gear is tied to a truck. This guide answers three: which truck has it, whether it came home, and whether it has changed trucks for good.

How a fleet asset tracker works without wiring or a data plan

A crowdsourced tag is a fleet asset tracker with no GPS receiver, no wiring and no data plan. It broadcasts a Bluetooth signal, and any phone that passes reports where it heard the tag. These networks are large (Apple counts over a billion iPhone, iPad and Mac devices, and Google over a billion Android devices).

A GPS tracker needs two things: power and a data plan. On kit with nothing to wire into, it runs on a battery that someone charges every few weeks or months. It also sends every position itself, so each unit carries its own data plan.

A tag's battery lasts up to six years, depending on its size, so there is nothing to charge between jobs. With no data plan per unit, every item on a truck can carry a tag. So can the truck itself, and that extra tag is what tells you which truck has what.

How fleet asset tracking shows which truck has which item

It compares each item's trail with the trail of a tag fixed to the truck itself. Fix that tag somewhere it never leaves and no steel closes over it, such as inside the cab.

An item and its truck report from the same places through the day. When they part, the item has left the truck. Both tags sit on the same map and in the same export, so there are no timestamps to match between two systems.

The figure follows truck 4 for one day, and shows where two items parted from it and what each split means.

Give each truck's tags one color. An item showing at another truck's site then stands out on the map.

Pick the tag size for where the item lives. The smallest tag fits inside a meter case or a tool case. The two larger tags are sealed to IP68 for kit that rides outside, like the ladder, the generator and the trailer. The asset tracking tags guide covers mounting by surface.

Check the kit before the trucks leave the yard

Check the kit while the trucks are still parked, because a missing item is easiest to fix before anyone drives out. Open the map and look for kit that is not at the yard. In the yard every truck shows in the same place, so the rest of the check reads the last working day.

Compare each item's trail with its truck's. An item that followed its own truck all day came back with it. One that followed another truck was borrowed, so move it back or treat it as a transfer. One still showing at the last site was left there, so send the nearest truck past it.

An empty yard overnight gets fewer reports, and they pick up once people start passing in the morning. Read each tag's last report time before acting on it.

If an item shows somewhere nobody sent it, the stolen tool and equipment recovery guide covers the first hour and what to tell the police.

Alerts for yard-parked trucks and take-home trucks

The alert setup depends on where the trucks park overnight. A geofence is a boundary you draw on the map, and the geofence guide shows how. Besides entry and exit alerts, it can remind you when a tag has been away longer than you chose.

For trucks that park at the yard overnight, draw one geofence around the yard and add every item to it. Set the reminder to your longest normal shift plus the drive back, and an item that did not come home shows before the morning check.

Trucks that go home with their drivers need a different setup, or the reminder fires for every item every evening. Have the yard geofence watch only the kit that should come back to the yard. Set its reminder to how often that kit normally returns. The daily check then compares each item's trail with its truck's.

The truck's own tag records where the truck parks overnight, so tell drivers before fitting it. The tool theft from work vans guide covers locks and take-home rules for the kit left inside.

When kit moves to another truck

A transfer is plain in the history: the item stops following its own truck's trail and starts following another's. A short loan and a lasting move look the same on day one, so the difference is how long it stays.

An item that stays with another truck longer than your loans usually last has moved. Give it the new truck's color, and update the equipment sign out sheet the same day. The map shows where the item went, and the sheet records who has it.

Keep the colors current. Otherwise they describe last month's fleet, and the check before the trucks leave flags the same items every morning.

What to expect from tags on a fleet

With tags, you get a dated location record for every item and every truck. Each item's trail sits next to its truck's.

• Updates come from passing phones. Any phone that goes by reports the tag. A truck in traffic or at a busy site updates through the day. An empty yard at night updates less often, and picks up again when people arrive.
• Building-level position. The position comes from the phone that heard the tag. It gets you to the right yard, site or stretch of road. An item and its truck can show slightly apart on one site, so a split is read from the site and the time.
• A hidden tag stays on. Mount each tag out of sight on the kit. Inside a closed steel bed box or toolbox, a tag may only report once the lid opens.
• Location, not engine data. A tag reports where an item is and when it came and went. Engine hours and fuel come from the truck's own systems.
• Where, not who. A tag shows which truck an item rode with, not who took it off. The sign out sheet keeps that record.