Four ways to keep track of a returnable asset.
Each technology answers a different question. Passive RFID counts assets reliably at the dock. The battery-powered options follow them once they leave. Most real deployments combine two, matched to asset value and where the asset travels.
Passive RFID
Cheap tags, read in bulk at the choke points.
Passive tags carry no battery. They power up only when a reader's signal reaches them, which keeps the tags cheap enough to put on every cage, tote and pallet. You read them in bulk at fixed points: a handheld sweep, a desktop station, or a tunnel at the dock. Each pass gives you a clean in or out event, which is exactly what reconciliation needs.
High-volume scanning in and out of your own depots.
No location between reads. Away from a reader, an asset is off the map until it returns.
Battery GPS + cellular
Real-time location anywhere there is signal.
A battery-powered tracker fixes its position by GPS and reports back over the cellular network. Low-power options like LTE-M and NB-IoT stretch battery life into years. You see where an asset is on a live map even when it is hundreds of kilometres from your nearest site. The trade is unit cost and battery management, so it suits your higher-value or most-strayed assets rather than every tote.
High-value assets and long-haul movements that leave your network.
Highest cost per unit, plus a battery to manage. GPS struggles deep inside buildings.
WiFi tracking
Reuse the WiFi you already run inside the building.
WiFi tags report through existing access points, so a site with dense coverage can locate assets to a zone without new fixed infrastructure. It is a practical fit for indoor visibility across a warehouse or distribution centre where the network is already good. Accuracy is zone-level rather than pinpoint, and it only works where the WiFi reaches.
Zone-level visibility inside facilities that already run dense WiFi.
Coverage stops at the building edge. Battery powered, and location is zonal, not exact.
BLE beacons
Low-cost beacons, read by gateways or phones.
BLE beacons are small, cheap and run for years on a coin cell. Gateways, or even staff smartphones, pick them up to give proximity and zone location across a yard or facility. It sits between passive RFID and active GPS on both cost and capability: better at finding and zoning assets indoors than passive tags, far cheaper than cellular trackers.
Finding and zoning assets across a yard or site at low cost.
Needs gateways or phones in range. Location is proximity or zone, not precise.