SAN FRANCISCO — Motive has introduced Motive Beacon, a compact Bluetooth-enabled tracking device designed to help physical operations leaders monitor and recover small equipment that often goes untracked by traditional GPS systems.
Powered by the Motive Mesh Network, Beacon leverages Motive Vehicle Gateways and devices running the Motive Fleet App and Driver App to detect nearby Beacons and securely transmit last-seen location data. The company says the system is engineered to deliver high-frequency in-transit alerts — as often as once per minute when traveling with a Motive Vehicle Gateway — providing near real-time visibility across jobsites, warehouses and transit routes.
Designed for Small Assets Often Missed by GPS
Operations leaders in construction, logistics, utilities and field services collectively manage billions of dollars in tools, generators, containers and specialty equipment. Yet many of these smaller, lower-cost assets historically haven’t justified the expense of GPS hardware.
Motive says Beacon addresses that gap.
“Missing equipment costs companies billions of dollars annually,” said Robert Higdon, Director of Product at Motive. “With Motive Beacon, we’re helping give customers the visibility they need to locate equipment and assets within the Motive platform, the same platform they’re already using to manage the most critical pieces of their operations including vehicles, drivers, fleet-related spend, and heavy equipment. Whether it’s tracking billions of dollars worth of equipment, reallocating underutilized assets, or recovering left-behind equipment, Beacon helps teams operate more efficiently without adding complexity.”
The company notes that the average U.S. warehouse wastes nearly seven weeks per year searching for misplaced inventory and equipment — a productivity drag that compounds across large portfolios.
Beacon’s compact, waterproof design allows it to be mounted discreetly on tools and mobile equipment. It runs on a replaceable four-year battery and integrates directly into the Motive Fleet Dashboard.
Mesh Network Enables High-Frequency Location Updates
The Motive Mesh Network functions by using connected devices — including Vehicle Gateways and mobile apps — as detection points. When a Beacon comes within Bluetooth range of any network device, its location is updated and transmitted to the platform.
This system enables:
- High-frequency tracking alerts during transit
- Last-seen location reporting across large geographic footprints
- Geofence alerts when equipment leaves approved zones
- Automatic grouping of equipment traveling with specific vehicles or drivers
Motive says upcoming dashboard enhancements will automatically group equipment traveling alongside an organization’s fleet, helping managers visualize which assets are in motion and where they are headed.
Alerts will also notify teams if equipment is transported by the wrong vehicle or leaves designated geofenced areas.
Helping Teams Improve Utilization and Reduce Capital Waste
Beyond theft prevention and recovery, Beacon is positioned as a utilization management tool. By tracking historical movement data, organizations can identify dormant or underused equipment and reallocate assets before purchasing new ones.
"When you’re managing 4,000 pieces of equipment, Motive Beacon is a game-changer," said Cristian Zuniga, Region Telematics Manager at CRH Americas Materials. "It's exactly the lightweight solution we needed to easily deploy across everything from our drones to surveyors equipment. Now we have a single view into how our equipment is actually being used, how often, and where it’s being underutilized. That level of insight helps us save money by pushing us to make faster, smarter decisions about what to scale up, what to retire, and where to invest.”
For industries with mixed fleets — including vehicles, heavy equipment and portable tools — consolidating tracking data into a single platform can streamline planning for safety, maintenance and financial forecasting.
Expanding Motive’s Asset Tracking Portfolio
Beacon extends Motive’s broader equipment monitoring lineup, which includes Vehicle Gateway and Asset Gateway Mini solutions. Together, these tools aim to give safety, operations and finance teams a unified view of drivers, vehicles, heavy equipment and smaller assets within one AI-powered system.
Motive currently serves nearly 100,000 customers across transportation and logistics, construction, energy, manufacturing and the public sector, including enterprise clients such as Halliburton, KONE, Komatsu, NBCUniversal and Maersk.
As asset tracking technology becomes more affordable and interconnected, Bluetooth-based mesh networks like Motive’s could play a growing role in improving visibility across complex, distributed operations — particularly where traditional GPS solutions have been too costly or impractical.
Originally reported by Motive.
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