Fiber4U — full equipment tracking, fewer losses, about 25,000 PLN in annual savings
A small fiber-optic contractor working around Kraków put nearly 70 tools on record — including Fujikura and Sumitomo splicers. No consultants, no multi-month rollout.
Key results after six months
About Fiber4U
Fiber4U is a small Kraków-based fiber-optic network contractor founded in 2016. The company runs FTTH projects for telecom operators in the Kraków region and western Lesser Poland. Day to day, five field crews of 4–6 people are in the field — around 30 people total including the office.
Their kit spans everything from headlamps and hand tools to fiber splicers worth PLN 25–35k each. In total, close to 70 tools circulate between crews working across different locations.
The challenge — "we don't know what we have or who has it"
Before Toolero, equipment tracking at Fiber4U ran on a spreadsheet maintained by one person at the office. In theory. In practice:
The spreadsheet couldn't keep up
A crew lead would take a splicer, hand it to a colleague from another crew, that person would go on leave — and the tool fell off the radar. The office would find out a month later, when the service provider called about a due calibration.
Duplicate purchases
Every quarter managers reported "we don't have the right torque wrenches". New ones were bought, then the old ones turned up in someone's trunk. In 2024 the company bought the same tool set twice.
No accountability
When equipment came back damaged — or didn't come back at all — there was no way to work out who had it last. Losses disappeared into company costs, with no chance for a pointed conversation with a specific employee.
Service scheduled by feel
A splicer needs calibration every 12 months. Without a history of who had what and since when, services happened by gut feeling — or only once the tool started misbehaving on site. A day lost coming off the job.
The Toolero rollout
Fiber4U picked Toolero in tracking mode — no external customers, internal equipment management only. The rollout took the team six calendar days, two of which were physical tagging in the workshop.
1. Inventory sweep
Over one weekend all tools were brought to a central warehouse. 78 items were catalogued: 12 turned out to be equipment the office didn't know about (found on the books), and 5 were straightforward duplicate purchases.
2. QR code tagging
Every tool received a sticker with a QR code generated directly in Toolero. For equipment working in harsher conditions (splicers, meters) we used stickers with a protective laminate. Average tagging time: 30 seconds per tool.
3. Crew and employee assignment
Five crews were created in the system (each as a collective "employee") plus around 30 individual records. Every tool was linked to a specific responsible person, so every checkout has one named owner.
4. Service schedule
Splicers and power meters got service cycles — 12 months for calibration, 24 months for technical inspection. Toolero reminds about the date automatically, 14 days before it's due.
5. Toolero walkthrough
Crew leads went through a short, 15-minute walkthrough of Toolero on their phones (web app — runs in a phone browser, nothing to install, can be added to the home screen as a PWA). Scan a QR code, pick an action: issue, return, mark as damaged.
What changed after six months
A single, complete record
Every tool has its own card with a history: who had it, when, how long they used it, when it was serviced, when it was last seen. The office no longer has to call around the crew leads to find a drill.
Fewer duplicate purchases
Before every buy the system shows whether a similar tool is already with one of the crews. In 2025 this saved around 25,000 PLN — the company bought only what it actually needed.
Planned service instead of fire-fighting
Splicers get calibrated in weeks when the crew has no project (data straight from Toolero). Result: zero days of downtime due to faulty equipment in 2025 — previously there were several a year.
Accountability sits with the employee
Every tool has a last owner named in the system. When something is damaged or missing, it's a conversation with a specific person, not a hunt for the culprit. Over six months: two formal disciplinary talks, one cost deduction.
Onboarding that actually works
New hires receive a list of the kit they're responsible for and sign it off digitally in Toolero. The crew lead reviews inventory at month-end from the app — five minutes instead of half a day of paperwork.
What surprised us was how fast the team switched over. I expected resistance to the scanning and logging — after two weeks the crew leads were asking why we hadn't done it three years ago. A splicer we'd written off six months earlier turned up in the records — a forgotten return from a subcontractor.
What Fiber4U uses in Toolero
Tracking mode
Fully internal — no customers, no invoices, no contracts.
Tool records + categories
Split into splicers, meters, aux equipment, PPE — easy reporting filters.
QR codes printed from Toolero
Every tool gets a unique sticker with a QR code generated in the system — no separate label software.
Service module
Cyclic calibrations, inspections, 14-day auto-reminders.
Internal checkouts
Crew lead pulls from stores → marked as issued to a person → return via QR scan.
Reports & analytics
Who holds the most, which tool runs the most hours, what drives service load.
Your company can hit similar results
Toolero in tracking mode takes 1–2 days for a company with a handful of tools, 1–2 weeks at Fiber4U scale. No integrator, no consultants.