In field services, construction, utilities, and transportation, operationally essential equipment is everywhere. There are generators, containers, tools, attachments, and more. While these assets may not carry the price tag of a truck or excavator, they’re the backbone of every job. When a crew can’t find a specific generator or attachment, the job stops. Projects stall, labor costs climb, and client trust dips, all because equipment isn’t where it’s supposed to be.

Traditional GPS asset tracking has focused on high-value equipment, leaving a wide range of tools and mid-size equipment unmanaged. 

Until now, tracking these high-volume, lower-value assets at scale has been cost-prohibitive and operationally complex. Motive is excited to announce the launch of Motive Beacon and the Motive Mesh Network, a breakthrough in affordable, scalable asset tracking designed for the realities of modern operations.

Why Motive Beacon? Solving the long tail of asset tracking

Motive Beacon is a discreet Bluetooth tracking device designed for tools, attachments, small and mid-size equipment, containers, carts, and other non-powered assets that traditional GPS asset trackers can’t economically cover.

At a glance, Motive Beacon:

  • Uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to broadcast its identity to nearby devices running the Motive app.
  • Is compact enough to mount on toolboxes, generators, carts, containers, and more.
  • Is IP67-rated, so it’s waterproof and dustproof for harsh environments.
  • Runs on a long-life, user-replaceable battery with a 4-year life.
  • Integrates directly into Motive’s Integrated Operations Platform, appearing alongside your vehicles, trailers, and cameras in the Motive Fleet Dashboard and Fleet App.

This makes Motive Beacon practical to deploy across hundreds or thousands of smaller assets that are essential but rarely tracked.

How it works: the power of the Motive Mesh Network

Motive Beacon leverages the Motive Mesh Network, an ever-expanding network of Motive devices that actively listen for Beacon signals across North America. When a Beacon comes within range of a mesh-enabled device, its location is instantly updated in the Motive Dashboard. 

How it works:

  1. Beacon broadcasts a Bluetooth signal. Each Motive Beacon emits a BLE signal at regular intervals.
  2. Devices running the Motive app detect the signal. Motive Gateways and the Motive Driver App and Motive Fleet App act as listeners. Across Motive’s customer base, this creates the Motive Mesh Network — a footprint of Motive‑connected devices that look out for Beacon signals as they move through the physical economy.
  3. Location updates in the Motive Dashboard. When a device detects a Beacon, it securely passes that encounter to the Motive Dashboard, which updates the asset’s last-seen location.
  4. Teams see last-seen locations in Motive. Operations teams can see Beacon-tagged assets in the Motive Fleet Dashboard and Fleet App right alongside vehicles, trailers, and other assets — including last-seen points and movement between sites.

Four problems Motive Beacon helps solve

Motive Beacon is built to solve persistent operational problems that drive cost and complexity for operators.

1. Eliminate blind spots with the Motive Mesh Network

Many operators own more tools than they can reliably track, leading to expensive overhead. The Motive Beacon helps eliminate these blind spots by leveraging the Motive Mesh Network—an expansive network of Motive Gateways and mobile devices running the Motive Driver and Fleet Apps.

  • Location Coverage: Outside of your immediate fleet, Beacons are tracked by any device in the Motive Mesh Network, providing reliable last-seen updates across the physical economy.
  • High-frequency In-transit Tracking: When a Beacon travels with a Motive Gateway-equipped vehicle, you receive location updates as frequently as every minute, ensuring you never lose sight of equipment on the move.

2. Maximize equipment ROI by reallocating underutilized assets

Without reliable data, procurement decisions often rely on intuition. Motive Beacon brings your small and mid-size assets into a unified platform, giving you a 360-degree view of your equipment and tools alongside your vehicles and drivers.

  • Identify Dormant Assets: Spot equipment that has been sitting idle for too long so you can put it back to work where it’s needed most.
  • Historical Reporting: View detailed movement trails to analyze the history of your equipment in transit. These insights support confident decisions about what to buy, what to redeploy, and where to scale back.

3. Stop wasting time searching for misplaced assets

Crews can lose 30 to 60 minutes per shift searching for a specific generator or attachment. Motive Beacon eliminates this downtime by helping teams quickly locate misrouted or left-behind equipment.

  • Automated Travel Groups (coming soon): Equipment associates with drivers and vehicles automatically, so you always know exactly which truck is carrying which asset.
  • Geofence & Mispull Alerts (coming soon): Soon, you’ll be able to receive alerts when equipment leaves a job site or is mistakenly transported by the wrong vehicle, preventing costly operational errors before they happen.

4. Locate your most essential equipment with Motive’s most accessible tracker

Until now, tracking high-volume, lower-value assets was cost-prohibitive. The Motive Beacon is our most accessible tracker, designed to bring visibility to the long tail of your equipment.

  • Seamless Installation: Its small size and flexible mounting options mean you can install it virtually anywhere—from power tools to specialized attachments.
  • Lower Barrier to Entry: Because the Beacon doesn’t require GPS or cellular hardware, it offers a significantly lower cost. This gives organizations the ability to track assets that were previously too small or expensive to manage, ensuring every essential tool is accounted for.

The Motive Beacon works exactly as we expected it to, tracking our small equipment with precise location updates at regular intervals. This will be huge as we scale our business, especially in our industry where equipment is crucial to the work we do. Without it, we cannot run our business.

— Dan Hamburg, Mitigation Department Manager, Paul Davis Restoration

Who benefits most — and how Beacon complements Motive’s Asset Gateway Mini

Motive Beacon is designed for organizations with:

  • Fleets with a wide mix of equipment: Operators that are managing not just vehicles, trailers, heavy equipment, but a wide range of tools and attachments that move between sites.
  • High-volume, lower-cost assets: Items like containers, dumpsters, portable power equipment, small pumps, carts, and job boxes that traditionally go untracked.
  • High-density hubs and busy sites: Yards, laydown areas, and job sites near major roads or customer facilities where Motive-equipped vehicles and devices frequently pass by.

Motive Beacon is part of Motive Equipment Monitoring and is designed to complement GPS asset gateways:

  • Asset Gateway Mini is the optimal choice for trailers, heavy equipment, and other high-value assets that need GPS location, telematics, and engine-hour data.
  • Motive Beacon is the right fit for smaller, non-powered assets where BLE-based last-seen visibility is the most economical way to track movement and utilization.

Together, Asset Gateway Mini and Beacon give organizations a layered approach to asset visibility — from high-value equipment down to the tools that support every job.

Ready to see Motive Beacon in action?

With Motive Beacon, maximize your organization’s ROI and eliminate operational downtime to maintain total visibility over every asset through the powerful Motive Mesh Network.

See Motive Beacon in action, or talk to the Motive team about extending your asset tracking strategy to the tools and equipment that power your business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Motive Beacon uses Bluetooth Low Energy and the Motive Mesh Network to provide last-seen locations for non-powered, lower-cost assets. GPS asset trackers like Asset Gateway Mini use GPS and cellular to provide precise near real-time location and telematics for higher-value assets such as trailers and heavy equipment.

Beacon-tagged assets appear in the Motive Fleet Dashboard and Motive Fleet App alongside vehicles, trailers, and other tracked assets. Teams can see last-seen locations, movement history, and asset details in the same views they already use for fleet management.

Motive Beacon is especially valuable for organizations in construction, field services, logistics, utilities, transportation, landscaping and roadway maintenance that manage a large inventory of equipment and a high volume of smaller assets. Any operator with essential tools, containers, or small equipment that frequently move between sites can benefit from adding Beacon visibility.