IN Brief:
- DEWALT has launched a Tool Connect Partner Network with Geotab, Trackunit and BoxLock as its first participants.
- Existing fleet vehicles, heavy equipment and secured storage can act as additional detection points for Tool Connect tools and tagged assets.
- Existing Tool Connect customers can activate the integrations without adding new DEWALT tracking hardware to supported equipment.
DEWALT has expanded its Tool Connect asset tracking system through integrations with Geotab, Trackunit and BoxLock, allowing existing fleet, equipment and storage infrastructure to detect connected tools as they move between vehicles, warehouses and operating sites.
The new Tool Connect Partner Network extends the number of places from which DEWALT tools and tagged equipment can be detected without requiring customers to install a dedicated fixed gateway at every location. Compatible partner hardware becomes another point from which the presence of nearby Tool Connect assets can be recorded.
Geotab will use connected vehicle infrastructure to detect Tool Connect equipment travelling within customer fleets, while Trackunit-connected machinery can identify tools close to heavy equipment. BoxLock adds secured storage to the network, allowing supported lockers and containers to contribute location information around stored assets.
DEWALT already offers a mobile Tool Connect application and a cellular Construction Asset Gateway that can be attached to job boxes and tool rooms. Bringing partner hardware into the system broadens coverage through equipment customers may already operate for fleet, machinery or storage management.
Portable tools can move through several operating environments during one working day, starting in a warehouse or depot before travelling in a service vehicle, being issued to a crew and returning through a different location. A tracking system based only on fixed gateways can therefore lose visibility through much of the journey.
Using connected vehicles as moving detection points changes that coverage model. When a Geotab-equipped vehicle can register a nearby Tool Connect asset, the equipment can remain associated with the fleet unit carrying it instead of disappearing from view once it leaves a depot.
Trackunit provides a similar extension around heavy machinery, which frequently travels alongside smaller tools and equipment. Connected machines can contribute another location signal without requiring each portable asset to carry its own cellular connection.
BoxLock adds a more controlled point around storage. Supported lockers and containers can help establish when equipment is present within secured locations, giving operators another record of where an asset was held before it moved again.
The system does not make every Tool Connect asset continuously connected over long distances. Detection still depends on compatible hardware being within range, and DEWALT notes that location accuracy varies according to the third party technology involved.
For fleet and field service operations, knowing which vehicle, depot or storage point contains an asset can nevertheless be more useful than receiving a highly precise coordinate. Specialist tools often travel as part of wider service activity, so narrowing a search to one operating location can reduce delays even without continuous positioning.
Missing equipment can create costs beyond the replacement value of the tool itself. A service crew unable to locate a required item may lose productive time, postpone work or arrange an urgent transfer from another depot, turning a relatively small asset-management problem into a larger operational delay.
DEWALT cites estimates placing annual US construction equipment theft losses between $300m and $1bn. Those figures relate specifically to construction rather than industrial logistics generally, but the underlying visibility problem also applies to distributed maintenance and field service organisations.
Geotab’s involvement connects smaller asset tracking with infrastructure already used to monitor commercial vehicles. Its aggregated fleet data has also been used to analyse changing freight patterns, while the Tool Connect integration applies connected vehicle infrastructure to the more granular question of which equipment is travelling with a particular fleet unit.
Using existing partner systems also reduces the amount of separate hardware customers have to install and maintain. A fleet already running Geotab or a contractor using Trackunit-connected equipment may be able to extend Tool Connect coverage through powered, networked infrastructure that is already part of daily operations.
More detection points still create data-management requirements. Assets need consistent identities, users need appropriate access permissions and organisations need a defined response when equipment appears at an unexpected location or fails to appear where planned.
The inaugural partner group is expected to expand. DEWALT says future participants could include more telematics providers alongside enterprise resource planning, estimating and workflow platforms, potentially connecting asset location more closely with work orders and equipment allocation.
Such integrations could move the system beyond recovering misplaced tools. If a work order identifies the equipment required for a task and location data shows what is actually travelling with the assigned vehicle, asset visibility becomes part of operational preparation rather than a separate tracking exercise.
The initial release establishes that foundation across fleets, heavy machinery and secured storage. Existing Tool Connect customers can activate supported integrations now, extending asset visibility through infrastructure already present in their operations rather than building a parallel tracking network from the ground up.
