The short answer: treat every van as a location with its own stock and minimums; put serialised tools on people's names (not just "in Van 2"); and count each van weekly with a phone, offline, from the driver's seat. Any tool that can't do all three will quietly become the clipboard again.
Why van stock evaporates
A van is a shelf that drives away. Consumables get used and nobody says so; the impact driver migrates to whichever job ran late; and the guy who knows where everything is takes that knowledge home at five. The failure isn't carelessness - it's that the recording moment (something left the van) happens in a basement garage with gloves on and no signal. Any system that needs a desk loses.
Vans are locations, not notes
In ItemTally, a van is a folder flagged as a vehicle - it shows up with a little truck icon everywhere, phone included. That means Van 1 has its own gaffer-tape count and its own minimums: "3 rolls minimum in every van" is a per-van rule, and the Monday digest says which van is short before the crew rolls, not after the customer's ceiling is half-taped.
Tools go on names, not on vans
The €400 tools shouldn't live in van-limbo. Check the impact driver out to Jonas - due Friday, thumb signature on the phone - and "where's the driver?" stops being a group chat. When Jonas moves crews or leaves, one page shows everything on his name, and the offboarding conversation is a checklist instead of an argument.
The two-minute van audit
Weekly, in the yard: open a count for Van 1, walk the shelves - tap or scan what you see, offline is fine - and post it. Whatever the sheet expected but you didn't see is your discrepancy list, with the movement history right there to tell you whether it was used, moved, or walked. Two minutes per van beats one ugly surprise per quarter.
Kits: the morning load-out, one move
The set your crew always grabs - drill, charger, first-fix box, two bags of ties - is a kit. Check the whole kit out to a person in one tap; every item still gets its own line in the ledger. "Load the van" becomes one recorded action instead of nine unrecorded ones.
None of this needs barcode guns or a warehouse system - a phone camera and printed QR labels cover a fleet of vans. The whole setup is an afternoon: here's the trades-crew walkthrough.