Technology

London Gateway will utilise one of the most advanced Vehicle Booking Systems (VBS) to ensure quick turnaround of all vehicles by enabling us to plan careful scheduling of lorry movements and reduce waiting times, thereby helping reduce costs.

Our Road Haulier Identification system uses smart card technology, together with biometric hand scanning, to enable us to vet vehicle drivers on arrival at London Gateway, as part of our security procedures.

The Road Gate system will be highly automated with OCR (Optical character recognition) to read vehicle number plates and Container numbers so these details can be automatically cross-checked against the VBS. The video scans will record the state of the containers as they arrive and depart the terminal for future reference. Vehicles on time and validated will be routed into the terminal whilst those out of the booking window or with a problem will be routed to the Help Desk facility.

Radiation Scanners will be present at the gate complex to automatically examine passing containers for problems. Containers identified with problem cargos will be diverted to an examination area.

Automatic Stacking Cranes (ASC) using OCR and light barriers will offload and back load road vehicles in a safe and efficient manner. This is another component in minimising the time a vehicle will be present on the terminal. The ASC will service the shipside operation by delivering containers to the shipside buffer.

Horizontal Transport will collect/deliver containers between the ASC buffer area and the Ship To Shore buffer area under control of the LG System.

The Ship To Shore cranes will have significant automation built in but be overseen by a crane driver who can take control at any time, particularly at the transfer point. This will allow good crane rates to be consistently achieved with in built safety. The cranes will be able to carry out twin, quad and tandem lifting to further improve crane performance.