1. Home
  2. Company
  3. Newsroom
  4. Hilti Stories
  5. 25 Years of Fleet Management: Built Through Partnership
Image alt text (optional)

25 Years of Fleet Management: Built Through Partnership

Produced by Hilti Group | 20 August 2026

Twenty-five years ago, one of our customers posed a question: "Can you completely take care of my tool park?"

Little did we know that this question would change the approach of how tool parks could be managed. What the customer was really looking for was peace of mind; the confidence that their tools would be available, maintained and ready when needed so they could focus on what they do best while Hilti took care of the rest.

Fleet Management started with Bati Group in 2001. They had over 1,000 tools and wanted a completely different way to manage them.

Marco Meyrat, then General Manager of Hilti Switzerland and the visionary behind the Fleet model.

Bati Group wasn't alone with that challenge. Our team in the Swiss Market Organization started a pilot project with eight customers. For these companies, tools were essential but managing them was a job of its own. Sometimes hundreds of tools moved across sites. They all had to be tracked, repaired or replaced when needed.

Turning complexity into a solution

The owners of these companies didn’t just need tools, they needed a solution. Managing tools effectively was the starting point. Early customer feedback led Hilti to move beyond selling tools and into offering a new concept called Fleet Management.

Since then, the offering has combined repairs or replacement, loan tools and theft coverage in one monthly fee, providing customers with greater cost predictability and with the added option of short-term tool rentals to cover peak demand.

All built around the idea of giving customers peace of mind, so they can focus on their business.

Scaling Fleet Management beyond Switzerland

As Fleet expanded beyond Switzerland, it continued to evolve.

By 2003, the model had expanded into Austria and Germany, growing quickly with a greater number of customers. What started as a pilot project was beginning to prove that it could work as a service at scale.

In the years that followed, the service became an integral part of Hilti’s offering. Most importantly, Fleet Management became something that was built together with customers.

From the first customer’s need to a global model

It all started with the promise of more peace of mind to a single customer. Driven by customer feedback, Fleet Management has continuously evolved to help deliver even greater productivity and sustainability benefits. Twenty-five years later, the service continues to deliver on its initial promise to tens of thousands of customers around the world.

Connected tools and our tool park management software, ON!Track, provide customers with greater visibility into battery state of health, tool utilization and tool location. A tool park analysis can help customers optimize their fleets and reduce unnecessary purchases. At the same time, returned fleet tools and components are reused wherever possible, while non-reusable materials are recycled, supporting a more circular approach and helping to reduce waste.

The story of Fleet Management is still being written. Built on customer feedback and brought to life every day by our teams in the field and across all our operations, it continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of our customers.

Discover how Fleet Management helps customers keep their projects running. Click here to choose your location to explore Fleet Management.