Location tracking is the part of asset tracking concerned with place: where each asset is now, where it was before, and when it moved. Location can be recorded symbolically, such as "HQ › Floor 3 › Room 312", or geographically, as latitude and longitude from GPS. For most organizations, symbolic locations tied to a clear location hierarchy are the most useful, because they match how people describe where things are.
The term is also used for phones and people, and in SEO tools "position tracking" means tracking keyword rankings. On this page it means tracking the location of physical assets such as equipment, IT, tools and vehicles.
How location tracking works
Every method answers the same question, "where was this asset last confirmed?", with a different trigger:
| Method | What records the location | Freshness | Cost per asset | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manual update | A person selects the new location | When someone remembers | None | Small registers, rare moves |
| Scan | Scanning a QR, barcode or NFC tag in a known place | At each scan | Very low (a label) | Audits, check-outs, transfers |
| Phone GPS at scan time | The phone’s coordinates when the tag is scanned | At each scan | Very low | Field kit moving between sites |
| Fixed RFID reader | A reader at a doorway or room reads the tag | Automatic, as it passes | Low tag, plus readers | Stores, wards, secure rooms |
| GPS tracker | A powered device reports its own coordinates | Continuous or periodic | High (device + data plan) | Vehicles, plant, containers |
| Indoor positioning (RTLS) | Beacons or anchors estimate a position inside a building | Near real time | High (infrastructure) | Specialist hospital and factory systems |
Symbolic vs geographic location
- Symbolic (site, building, floor, room, zone) is what people use to go and find something, and what audits are organized around.
- Geographic (coordinates on a map) is what you need for things that travel between sites or sit outdoors.
- Both together is the most useful: a tool can belong to "Depot B" and also show where it was last scanned on a map.
Why location tracking matters
- Less search time: staff go straight to the right room instead of asking around.
- Faster audits: you know where to count, and wrong-location items show up as variances.
- Loss prevention: movement history shows where an item was last seen and who moved it.
- Alerts: once an asset has a home location, leaving it can trigger a zone-exit alert or geofence alert.
Common mistakes
- Too many location levels. If nobody acts differently knowing which shelf an item is on, stop at the room.
- Free-text locations. "Rm 3", "Room3" and "Third room" become three places. Use a fixed location list.
- Treating last-seen as live. A scan shows where an asset was at that time, not where it is now.
- Expecting GPS indoors. Use scans or readers for rooms, and GPS for open ground.
Location tracking in Asetavo
Asetavo uses a location tree (property › building › floor › room), updated by user moves, scans and, on Business, fixed readers mapped to zones. From Growth, the mobile app adds the GPS coordinates of each scan, so an asset has a symbolic location, a last GPS position on a map and a geo trail of past scans. On Business, hardware GPS trackers add a live position for vehicles and plant. Asetavo is not an indoor positioning (RTLS) system: indoors, location comes from where an asset was last scanned or which reader last saw it. See GPS asset tracking and zones and zone alerts.
