HireTAG Automatic Equipment Tracking System

The HireTAG system is an integrated RFID solution designed for the events rental industry. It provides a quick and easy mechanism to track practically every item of your equipment when it leaves, or is returned to, the warehouse. As items are walked through the HireTAG Arch, either individually or bundled together in a flight-case, unique radio signals are read by the structure and ultimately processed and recorded by your Rental Management Software.

This revolutionary new system finally joins together the practicalities of working in the real world of the warehouse with the rigours and accuracy of database management systems. The impact on rental operations will be radical and tangible:

Potentially hundreds of working hours a week saved in the check in / check out process
Opportunity to track thousands of valuable items that are not suited to traditional bar-coding systems, e.g. cables.
The reassurance of being able to know the whereabouts of practically every item you own at any time.
Opportunity to bring 'intelligence' supported by your Rental Management Software to bear on the dispatching process. For example, being warned that an item might run out of 'lamp hours' while on a job.

What is Special About HireTAG Automatic Equipment Tracking System?

The HireTAG system is made up of two parts:

The HireTAG, a specially designed component (available in several configurations) is attached to your equipment. Each HireTAG houses an RFID chip and antenna and its structure, material and means of attachment is carefully calibrated to enable the RFID technology to work in environments that up until now have been impossible. Furthermore, each HireTAG model has been designed with the nature and use of the equipment it attaches to in mind, so it will be both robust and sympathetic to the everyday handling of each item.
The HireTAG Arch is a structure that reads the data stored on the RFID tags as the equipment is passed through it. Like the HireTAG, the Arch also contains carefully configured radio receivers that have been integrated in a novel way to get the maximum 'read-rate' of RFID signals as they come into range. All the data is then passed to the HireTAG Software interface displayed on the two touch-screen monitors mounted on the Arch itself, allowing the user to make key decisions about the dispatching or returns process from the information displayed.

The HireTAG system – tailor-made solution to your automatic equipment tracking needs

The HireTAG system has been designed from the ground up by engineers who have an intimate knowledge of the rental industry, expertise in radio technology and a first class understanding of product design. It is not simply the assembly of standard, easily obtained components and technologies; it is a tailor made solution for the requirements of a specific industry and in the pages that follow we will attempt to explain why we believe it is the only system guaranteed to work.

Why can't I just use regular off the shelf RFID tags for automatic equipment tracking?

The HireTAG uses a proprietary modified form of a standard RFID tag, which has been specifically designed for use in the production rental industries. In the past, the cost of these tags was prohibitive; however a key component of Navigator Systems plan was to keep the costs in a range that is affordable for most companies.

Although RFID has been available for several years, their use was designed for other industries and were read reliably only 60% to 80% of the time in the adverse circumstances that are common in the production rental industry.

Any equipment containing metal or carbon, such as trussing, speakers and most cable, subjected the tags to conditions that would cancel their signal capacity.

In comparison, the Navigator Systems HireTAG has achieved accurate read rates of up to 99.99% in these difficult conditions. Additionally the Navigator Systems HireTAG cost significantly less than a standard active RFID tag.