Bluetooth Asset Tracking Tags and the IOX-BT: How They Work and What to Tag

Bluetooth asset tracking tags work through the IOX-BT, which lets a GPS tracking device hear tags on nearby equipment and report where and when it heard them to the High Point GPS platform. High Point GPS sells this as small asset and tool tracking: a module, a tag and the platform. The IOX-BT is an expansion module that plugs into the IOX port on a GPS tracking device and adds a Bluetooth Low Energy radio. The tag is a small sealed beacon fixed to the asset, such as a power tool, a ladder or a tool crate, and it broadcasts its identity every few seconds on a coin-cell or larger battery. In the High Point GPS platform, the tag shows up as an asset with a location, a last-seen time and, for sensor tags, a reading such as temperature.

The GPS tracking device does the work. Each time it hears a tag, it records which tag, when, and where the vehicle was at that moment, then sends that up with its regular telematics data. The tag has no GPS and no modem, which keeps it inexpensive and lets its battery last for years.

A GPS tracking device hears a tag within Bluetooth range, typically tens of metres in the open and less through steel. So a tagged asset's location is the location of the last vehicle that heard it. A toolbox in the yard is seen by each equipped truck that passes, an attachment on a site by the crew truck parked beside it, and a tool crate in a van reports from wherever the van goes. An asset where no vehicle fitted with the IOX-BT goes is never seen, so tag coverage equals fleet coverage, which suits a yard-and-site operation and doesn't suit a trailer dropped at a customer three provinces away.

For that trailer, use a tracker with its own GPS and modem, such as the battery-powered GO Anywhere or the wired GO Anywhere Plus. Both kinds of tracker show up on the same map.

Some tags carry sensors on top of identity and presence. Temperature tags in a reefer body or a cooler give you a continuous cold-chain record through the vehicle's own device, and door sensors such as the ELA Puck MAG detect openings with a magnet. When a beacon's sampling isn't enough, the IOX port also accepts wired third-party sensors from the add-on library, and driver ID readers such as the IOX-NFCREADERA use the same port family.

Start with the assets that go missing or that crews hunt for most: power tools, ladders and toolboxes, attachments and buckets, and any tool or kit worth more than a few hundred dollars that moves between crews. Group them by type in the High Point GPS platform so a search for "where are the compactors" returns a list. Turn on last-seen alerts, so the platform flags an asset that has gone unheard longer than its normal cycle before someone needs it on a job. You mount each tag out of sight with screws or adhesive, then add it to the platform as an asset.

These are the beacon types Geotab supports for small asset tracking, with how each one mounts and the reading it adds.