A portable generator earns its keep by being left somewhere - powering a welfare cabin, a pump in a field, a stage nobody will strike until Monday. That is also exactly how it gets lost. Units migrate from job to job without paperwork, sit in subcontractors’ compounds for months, and run hundreds of hours past their service interval because no one owns the number on the hour meter. Tracking generators is therefore two problems in one: where each unit is right now, and how hard it has been working since anyone last looked.
What you will learn
- Where generators actually go
- The generator register
- Run hours and servicing
- Labelling generators
- Check-outs by site
- Tools that make this easier
- FAQ
Where generators actually go
Theft happens, but it is not the main leak. The common patterns:
- The unit that stayed behind. The job demobs, the generator keeps powering the site cabin “for now”, and six months later it belongs to the site in everyone’s mind.
- The subcontractor shuffle. A unit lent to a subbie crew moves with that crew to their next job - which is not your job.
- The identical-twin problem. Two units of the same model, one freshly serviced, one overdue. Without IDs, the wrong one goes out and the right one gets serviced twice.
- The hour meter nobody reads. Service intervals are written in hours, but the only person who sees the meter is whoever happens to refuel it.
Every one of these is a missing record at a handover moment, which is why the fix is a check-out habit rather than a better memory.
The generator register
One record per unit, with the fields that answer real questions:
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Asset ID | What the label shows and what crews quote over the phone |
| Make, model, rated output | Distinguishes look-alike units and matches the right set to the load |
| Serial number | The proof for warranty claims, insurance and police reports |
| Purchase date and price | Drives depreciation and the replace-or-repair decision |
| Current site or holder | The most-asked question in any generator fleet |
| Hours at last service | The baseline every service decision works from |
| Service interval (hours) | Turns the meter reading into “due” or “fine” at a glance |
| Condition notes and documents | Receipts, repair invoices and fault photos in one place |
Record the serial number when the unit arrives, while it is clean and in front of you. On some units the engine carries its own serial - capture both, because warranty claims can ask for either.
Run hours and servicing
Generators are serviced by run hours, not by calendar - which makes the hour meter the most valuable number in the fleet, and the least recorded.
Build two habits around it:
- Read the meter at every return and every service. The reading plus a date turns into a usage curve over time, and tells you which units are doing the work.
- Log what was done, not just when. Oil, filters, plugs, fuel system - the next person to service the unit should not have to deduce its history from the colour of the oil.
Tip: photograph the hour meter at every check-in. The photo timestamps itself, settles disputes about who ran a unit hard, and takes five seconds with the same phone that just scanned the label.
Labelling generators
A generator is a hot, vibrating, fuel-splashed box that lives outdoors, so label choice matters more than usual:
- Placement: the control panel surround or a roll-frame crossbar - flat, visible, and away from the exhaust and fuel filler.
- Stock: laminated polyester or metal-backed asset labels. Paper peels within weeks in this environment.
- Redundancy: on open-frame units, label the frame as well as the housing - panels get swapped during repairs and take their labels with them.
Some fleets go further: GPS trackers on high-value sets parked in theft-prone areas, or RFID for gate-scanning a busy yard. Those are legitimate options at the heavy end of the market, but for most fleets the actual failure is that nobody wrote down where the unit went - which a scannable label and a check-out habit fix at a fraction of the cost.
Check-outs by site
The discipline: a generator is in the yard, or it is checked out to exactly one named site, client or person.
- Issue: record the destination and date, plus a due date if the loan has an end. “Until the job finishes” is fine - “indefinitely, to nobody in particular” is how units vanish.
- Transfer: when a unit moves straight from one site to another, record the transfer. Direct moves are where generator registers go to die.
- Return: check the unit in, read the meter, note the condition, log any faults while the context is fresh.
- Review: walk the out-list monthly. A unit checked out to a job that finished in March is recoverable in April; in November it is a write-off with extra steps.
The same model carries straight across to the rest of the trailer - see air compressor tracking for the other half of most site power setups.
Tools that make this easier
A spreadsheet generator log fails in a familiar way: hour readings live in text messages, service history lives in the mechanic’s head, and the location column was last edited at a desk by someone who has never seen the yard. The data that matters is created standing next to the machine, which is precisely where spreadsheets are not.
An asset management tool like AMPthilly closes that gap: each unit gets a profile with serial, purchase details, custom fields for hour readings and service intervals, and attached documents; check-outs assign units to a site, client or person with due dates and an overdue list; and a printable QR label on the housing opens the unit’s record in any phone browser - no app install - so crews can check it in or out and report faults from the yard gate. The free plan covers 3 users and 25 assets, which is a whole small generator fleet tracked for nothing.
FAQ
How do I keep track of portable generators? Asset ID and durable label per unit, serial on record, and every despatch logged as a check-out to a named site or person, with hour readings captured at return.
How should I log generator service and maintenance? By run hours. Record the meter reading and the work done at every service, plus the next-due hours, so “due” or “fine” is a glance rather than a guess.
Where should I put an asset label on a generator? Control panel surround or roll-frame crossbar, away from exhaust and fuel filler, on laminated or metal-backed stock.
Do I need GPS tracking for generators? Usually not. GPS suits high-value units in theft-prone spots; most fleets’ real problem is unrecorded handovers, which a QR label and check-out habit solve cheaply.
What should a generator register include? ID, make/model and output, serial, purchase details, current site, hours at last service, service interval, condition notes and attached documents.
The takeaway
A generator fleet is tracked at two meters: the hour meter on the unit and the handover moment at the gate. Record both - who took which unit where, and how many hours it has run since the last service - and everything else becomes a lookup in the register instead of a round of phone calls.