BLE and parent-child tracking for roller cages and RTIs
BLE tags, gateways, and parent-child trackers give returnable assets a location between scans, without a GPS tracker on every asset. How Rotion uses them.
Last updated: 2 October 2026
BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) tags give returnable assets a location between scans. On your own sites, gateways pick up the tags continuously. Across the network, a parent-child setup puts an LTE and GPS tracker on about one asset in ten, and low-cost BLE child tags on the rest relay their position through the nearest parent. Rotion records both as custody events next to phone scans and RFID reads.
What problem does BLE solve that scanning does not?
Scans and RFID reads only happen at a handover or a reader. Between those moments an asset is invisible: roller cages pile up in store backrooms and at transport partners, and nobody knows which store holds how many. BLE fills that gap. Tags broadcast their ID, and gateways or parent trackers report where they are, without anyone scanning.
Use BLE where the time between scans is where assets get lost, and where the asset value justifies a battery-powered tag. For crates that pass through partner hands, QR codes and phones remain the cheaper answer.
How do BLE gateways work on a site?
A gateway is a fixed receiver that picks up tag signals in its zone and sends them to the platform. Indoors, plan roughly one gateway per zone, or one per 2,000 to 5,000 m². Tags beacon periodically, and the gateway filters those signals before they reach Rotion, so the record shows presence and dwell time per zone, not a stream of raw pings.
BLE tags can also be read by phones running the scan app, which helps at sites where installing a gateway is not worth it. The limit is coverage: once an asset leaves your gateway network, it is not seen until it reaches another gateway or a phone.
How does parent-child tracking work?
Parent-child tracking splits the fleet in two:
- Parents, about 10% of the fleet, carry an LTE tracker with GPS. They report their own position over the mobile network and need no local infrastructure.
- Children, the other 90%, carry low-cost BLE tags. A child within 50 to 100 m of a parent is picked up by that parent and reported with the parent's position.
The result is near-real-time location for bulk RTIs such as roller cages, pallets, and crates, without the cost of a GPS tracker on every asset. Coverage grows as more parents are deployed. A child's location comes from the parents near it, so precision and freshness depend on how many parents are around.
What does BLE and parent-child tracking cost?
Indicative 2026 bands per asset:
| Device | Cost per asset | Battery | Share of fleet |
|---|---|---|---|
| BLE tag, gateway-read | €5 to €15 | 2 to 5 years | Assets on your own sites |
| BLE child tag | €5 to €15 | About 5 years | About 90% of a parent-child fleet |
| Parent tracker, LTE and GPS | €60 to €150 plus data | 5 to 8 years | About 10% of a parent-child fleet |
Only parents carry a cellular radio, which is where the data cost sits. Plan a battery replacement program from the start. Because Rotion does not sell tags, the hardware is sourced to fit the flow, and the mix can change without changing the record.
How does Rotion combine BLE with scans?
BLE answers where an asset is; a scan answers who confirmed it. Rotion keeps both. In a roller cage loop, parents and children give a live count per store and partner, store staff confirm handovers in the scan app, overdue cages are chased automatically, and the fleet is sized from real rotation instead of guesswork.
Every BLE position, scan, and RFID read lands in the same digital packaging passport, so reports and integrations do not depend on which carrier produced the event. See which tracking technology fits your reusable assets for the full comparison.
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