In the trades, your tools don’t sit still. They live in vans, move between job sites, get shared across crews, and occasionally walk off entirely. A missing impact driver is an hour of lost time and a re-buy; a missing cable locator or refrigerant recovery machine can stall a job. This guide covers how electricians, plumbers, HVAC engineers, and other trade businesses keep tools, vans, and job-site equipment under control - so you always know what you’ve got, who has it, and what’s due back.
What you will learn
- Why trade businesses lose tools
- What to track in a trade business
- Assign tools to vans, crews, and jobs
- Tracking tools between job sites
- Cutting van and job-site theft
- Calibration, inspections, and hired plant
- Tools that make this easier
- FAQ
Why trade businesses lose tools
The general reasons tools go missing apply to everyone, but the trades have their own multipliers:
- Tools live in vans, not a controlled store. A van is a mobile toolroom with no one checking items in and out - so the contents drift over weeks until nobody’s sure what should be in there.
- Gear moves between job sites. A tool sent to a site to “help out for the afternoon” becomes a tool nobody can locate three jobs later.
- Crews share expensive kit. Core drills, thermal cameras, pressure testers, and recovery machines get passed around with a text message, not a record. “I thought your lot had it” is how a £1,500 tool disappears.
- Theft is constant. Vans and sites are prime targets. UK tradespeople alone reported a tool theft to police roughly every 12 minutes in 2023, with over half taken from vehicles - and the recovery rate is brutally low.
The thread through all of these is the same: handovers happen verbally, and there’s no living record of who has what. Fix that one thing and most of the leakage stops.
What to track in a trade business
You don’t need to tag every screwdriver. Track by value and by pain - the items that cost real money to replace or that stall a job when they’re missing.
| Category | Examples | How to track |
|---|---|---|
| Power tools | Drills, breakers, grinders, saws | Individually, by serial |
| Test & measurement | Multifunction testers, clamp meters, cable locators, manometers, leak detectors | Individually + calibration dates |
| Specialist / shared machines | Core drills, pipe freezers, recovery machines, thermal cameras | As a bookable pool |
| Vehicles | Vans, trailers | As assets that “hold” other tools |
| Hired plant | Anything on hire | Track with off-hire dates |
| Standard kit | Per-van/per-crew baseline sets | As kits, not individual items |
| PPE & access | Harnesses, ladders, keys, fobs | By inspection/return where it matters |
| Consumables | Blades, bits, fixings | By stock level, not individually |
The value line: a good rule is to individually track anything with a serial number worth more than a day’s hire of a van. Below that, group it into kits or stock levels so the system stays usable.
Assign tools to vans, crews, and jobs
The core habit that keeps trade tools under control is checking them out to a clear owner - and in the field, the “owner” is usually a van, a crew, or a job, not just an individual.
- Van as a holder. Assign each van its standard kit, so you can reconcile what’s in it against what should be in it. When a tool isn’t on the van and isn’t checked out elsewhere, you know immediately.
- Crew or person. For tools that follow a person (an electrician’s tester, an engineer’s gauges), assign them to that individual with their other gear.
- Job. For tools sent to a specific site, check them out to the job. When the job closes, the system shows everything that should be coming back.
Capture condition at checkout (a quick photo) so there’s no argument later about who damaged what. This is the same check-out/return system covered in how to keep track of company tools - the trade twist is simply that vans and jobs are first-class “holders,” not only people.
Tracking tools between job sites
This is where trade tools vanish most: the informal site-to-site handover. The fix is to treat every move as a transfer you record, not a verbal one.
When a tool goes from the van to a site, or from one crew to another, scanning its QR label reassigns it to the new holder or job in seconds. That gives you a continuous chain of custody - so at any moment you can answer “where is the cable locator?” with a name and a location, not a guess. And when a job wraps, the list of what’s checked out to that job is your return checklist.
- Scan to transfer a tool to a new site, crew, or person
- Keep a continuous record of who had it, when (the chain of custody)
- Use the per-job checked-out list as the end-of-job return check
- Set due dates on anything lent to another crew so it doesn’t quietly become theirs
Cutting van and job-site theft
Theft is the trade’s biggest single source of tool loss, and the numbers are grim: most stolen tools are never recovered, and a single van break-in commonly costs thousands of pounds plus days of lost work. You can’t eliminate it, but you can deter it and dramatically improve your odds of recovery and a clean insurance claim. Three layers:
Deter
- Proper van locks, deadlocks, and alarms; don’t store tools in the van overnight where you can avoid it
- Secure on-site storage (lockable site boxes) and don’t leave tools unattended
- Visible, permanent marking - engrave or etch the company name on high-value tools (marked tools are harder to resell)
Document (before anything happens)
- Record the serial number of every high-value tool - this is what makes a recovered tool yours
- Keep a photo and the purchase details on the record
- Maintain an up-to-date register, so after a theft you can hand police and insurers an exact, itemised list in minutes
Recover & claim
- Report quickly with serial numbers - police and resale marketplaces can only match what’s documented
- A complete, dated register with serials and photos turns an insurance claim from a dispute into a formality
- Reassign or write off stolen items in your register with the reason logged, so your counts stay honest
The hard truth: the recovery rate for stolen tools is low no matter what you do - which is exactly why the documentation you do beforehand matters more than anything you do after. A serial number and a photo on file is the difference between a recoverable asset and an anonymous one.
Calibration, inspections, and hired plant
Trade tools come with dates attached, and missing those dates costs money or compliance. The same register that tracks ownership should track these too:
- Calibration. Electricians’ multifunction testers, HVAC gauges, torque wrenches, and similar instruments need periodic calibration. Record the due date and keep the calibration certificate on the tool’s record, so you’re never on site with an out-of-cal tester - or scrambling to find the cert for a client.
- Inspections. PAT testing, harness and ladder inspections, and other safety checks have due dates and evidence requirements. Track them against the item.
- Service intervals. Machines (recovery units, core drills) have service needs that, missed, turn into breakdowns mid-job.
- Hired plant. Track hired equipment with its off-hire date. Forgetting to return hire on time is a silent, recurring cost - a simple alert pays for the whole system.
Keeping warranty, calibration, and service dates on each asset means the reminders come to you, instead of you discovering the lapse at the worst moment.
Tools that make this easier
You can start with a spreadsheet and a label printer - and for a single van, that may be enough. But trade tools move too much for a static list to keep up; the moment a handover is faster to skip than to log, the record goes stale (more on why in why spreadsheets fail for asset tracking).
AMPthilly is built for assets that move: one register for tools, test equipment, vans, and hired plant; printable QR labels you scan from any phone (no special scanner, no separate app) to check tools out to a van, crew, or job; transfers that keep a full chain of custody; and calibration, service, warranty, and hire dates tracked per item with the history attached. There’s a free plan to pilot it on your highest-value tools and one van first.
FAQ
How do electricians and contractors keep track of their tools?
Treat each van and crew as an assignable owner. Give every high-value tool and test instrument a unique ID, a durable QR/barcode label, and a recorded serial number; check tools out to a van, crew, or job; transfer by scanning when they move between sites; and scan them back in on return. Review overdue and missing items weekly.
How do I stop tools getting stolen from my van?
Deter (locks, secure storage, don’t store overnight, permanently mark tools), document (record serial numbers and photos before anything happens), and prepare to recover (a complete register makes police reports and insurance claims fast). Most stolen tools are never recovered, so the documentation you do beforehand is what counts.
How do you track tools between job sites?
Record each move as a transfer, not a verbal handover. Scan a tool’s label to reassign it to the new site, crew, or job, keeping a continuous chain of custody - so you always know which site has each tool and exactly what’s due back when a job wraps.
What is the best way to share tools between crews?
Track shared, high-value tools as a bookable pool rather than assigning them permanently to one van. Each crew checks the tool out to their job and returns it after, with the record showing who has it now - which ends the “I thought you had it” cycle.
Do I really need to mark and record serial numbers on my tools?
Yes - it’s the highest-value habit for theft recovery. Recovered tools are often unclaimable because owners can’t prove ownership. A serial number, photo, and permanent mark on file makes a tool returnable, supports insurance claims, and deters resale. Record it at purchase, not after a theft.
The takeaway
Trade tools are hard to track for a simple reason: they move constantly, between vans, sites, and crews, usually on a verbal handover that leaves no trace. The fix isn’t more rules - it’s making every handover a five-second scan that records who has what, and keeping serial numbers and photos on file so a theft becomes a claim you can win instead of a loss you absorb.
Start with one van and your most expensive, most-shared tools. Get the check-out-and-transfer habit working there, track the calibration and hire dates that cost you when missed, then roll it across the fleet. For the underlying system in full, see how to keep track of company tools (and who has them).
