RFID or GPS? They are not rivals.
People who search for an RFID tracker often expect a GPS tracker without the battery. It is a different tool for a different job, and most businesses that track things end up needing more than one.
Four ways to follow something.
| What it tells you | What it needs | What it suits | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPS tracker | Where a vehicle or an asset is, live, anywhere outdoors | Power from a battery or the vehicle, and a mobile network | Vehicles, machines and assets worth a tracker of their own |
| BLE beacon | Which vehicle an item is travelling with, and where it was left | A tracker with Bluetooth close enough to hear it | Trailers, generators and implements that go out with vehicles |
| Mesh tag | Where a person or a thing is inside a building, on its floor plan | Anchors and a gateway in that building | People, pallets, trolleys and equipment under one roof |
| RFID label | Where and when an item was read | Readers at the points it passes | Cartons, tools and returnable containers, one by one |
On Trackerserver these are GPS tracking, InSight BLE, InSight Mesh and InSight RFID, the last in early access, all in one account.
Start from the question.
Listen to how your client puts it. "Where is the truck?" is a GPS question. "Which vehicle went off with the generator?" is a beacon question. "Where in the hospital is that infusion pump?" is a mesh question. "Did all forty crates on this order go out?" is an RFID question.
Only the last of those is about a quantity of things that look alike. That is where RFID belongs: with items too many, too small or too ordinary to be given a battery each.
GPS tracking
The platform's first job.
The four technologies on this page hang off one platform, and that platform is first of all for vehicles. Trackerserver shows a fleet on a live map, replays trips stop by stop and raises alerts on speed, zones and movement.
RFID replaces none of that. It adds a record of labelled items to an account that already knows where the vehicles are.
Beacons and mesh
For what moves with a battery of its own.
A beacon on a trailer or a generator is heard by the tracker in the vehicle that takes it out, so your clients see who has each item. A mesh tag is placed on a floor plan by the anchors around a building, so they see where it is indoors.
Most clients need more than one.
A distributor has vehicles on the road, trailers in the yard, forklifts and cages in the warehouse and cartons by the thousand. No single technology covers all four. A platform that has each of them does, and it keeps them in one account under your brand.
- Vehicles: GPS tracking
- Trailers and equipment: InSight BLE
- Inside the building: InSight Mesh
- Item by item: InSight RFID, in early access
Next
Ask about RFID for your clients.
Tell us what your client wants recorded item by item, and where those items pass. We answer with where InSight RFID stands, whether early access suits the job, and what the rest of the platform would add.