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Case study — North-Sea port replaces weigh-bridge queues with drive-through LiDARCase study — North-Sea port replaces weigh-bridge queues with drive-through LiDARCase study — North-Sea port replaces weigh-bridge queues with drive-through LiDAR
25 Nov 2025 25. November 2025 25 novembre 2025 · Sachtleben Technology
The starting point. A North-Sea port operator handles, in the bulk segment (fertiliser components, grain imports, residual coal), more than 800 trucks on peak days. Until 2024 that ran across two classic weigh bridges at the gate: drive on, wait for the load cell to stabilise, talk to the driver, print the slip, drive off. Per truck averaging 8–12 minutes; on peak days the queue ran back onto the federal road. Three consequences: complaints from neighbours, penalty exposure to the haulage companies, and 24/7 shift staffing at the weigh gate with three FTE.
Why a second weigh bridge was not the answer. The bottleneck was not the number of bridges — it was the measurement procedure itself. A weigh bridge requires the truck to stand still for a stable reading (typically 20–40 seconds), plus time for approach, positioning and receipt. A second bridge would have doubled throughput — staffing at the gate would have grown along with it, and the build time for an additional trade-approved weigh bridge runs 9–14 months.
The installation. In April 2025 OWL EYE® TERMINAL was installed as a double portal: two drive-through measurement stations, each with a multi-sensor cluster overhead and on the side. The truck drives through at 10 km/h — the LiDAR system scans volume and geometry of the load before and after loading; the difference is the quantity delivered/picked up. Trade-approved per OIML R 134 for volume-based commercial measurement. Integration into the port TOS and the existing weighbridge-receipt printing system.
The weigh bridges stayed. One of the two remains as a backup system and for special cases (heavy load outside the standard truck geometry). The second was decommissioned — its footprint is now used for an additional drive-through lane.
What has changed — after 7 months in operation.
| Position | Weigh bridge | OWL EYE® TERMINAL |
|---|---|---|
| Wait time per truck | 8–12 min | under 30 sec |
| Throughput per hour | ~50 trucks (one bridge) | ~180 trucks (double portal) |
| Personnel at the gate | 3 FTE in 24/7 shifts | 1 FTE day shift (supervision) |
| Trade approval | MID/class Y | OIML R 134 for volume |
| Weather sensitivity | wind, frost (bridge ices) | rain uncritical, snow with heated optics |
| Maintenance per year | ~120 h (bearings, load cells, calibration) | ~20 h (sensor inspection, optic cleaning) |
| Investment order of magnitude | mid six-figure per bridge | mid to high six-figure (full double portal) |
The operational change — in one sentence. The weigh-gate shift no longer exists. Night operation runs unstaffed with automatic gate control; on anomalies (e.g. unusual cargo geometry) a colleague from the port control centre is connected via camera and intercom. The freed-up daily personnel capacity was not cut — it was redeployed into plant service, where the operator has been short-staffed for years.
ROI as an order of magnitude. The eliminated shifts (nights plus weekends, several FTE) translate into a four-digit hourly saving per year — fully loaded, a high six-figure line item. The double portal pays back, per the operator, in under 30 months, even before the softer effects (no queue on the federal road, fewer haulier complaints, faster ship loading) are taken into account.
What was not promised. Trade-approved volume measurement does not replace mass weighing in every country and for every material — it works for fertilisers and grain; for bulk materials with unknown or strongly varying density, a weigh bridge stays mandatory. The port therefore deliberately picked the hybrid setup: drive-through for 90 % of trucks, weigh bridge as backup for the remaining 10 %.
What the operator says in hindsight. The decisive effect is not trade approval (that is the precondition) — it is that the weighing step stops being an operational bottleneck. As soon as truck handling takes seconds instead of minutes, "the gate" disappears from the daily operations meeting — and that is measurable: at this port the weekly gate escalations went from 12–18 to zero.
More at /truck-terminal/ and /industries/.
The starting point. A North-Sea port operator handles, in the bulk segment (fertiliser components, grain imports, residual coal), more than 800 trucks on peak days. Until 2024 that ran across two classic weigh bridges at the gate: drive on, wait for the load cell to stabilise, talk to the driver, print the slip, drive off. Per truck averaging 8–12 minutes; on peak days the queue ran back onto the federal road. Three consequences: complaints from neighbours, penalty exposure to the haulage companies, and 24/7 shift staffing at the weigh gate with three FTE.
Why a second weigh bridge was not the answer. The bottleneck was not the number of bridges — it was the measurement procedure itself. A weigh bridge requires the truck to stand still for a stable reading (typically 20–40 seconds), plus time for approach, positioning and receipt. A second bridge would have doubled throughput — staffing at the gate would have grown along with it, and the build time for an additional trade-approved weigh bridge runs 9–14 months.
The installation. In April 2025 OWL EYE® TERMINAL was installed as a double portal: two drive-through measurement stations, each with a multi-sensor cluster overhead and on the side. The truck drives through at 10 km/h — the LiDAR system scans volume and geometry of the load before and after loading; the difference is the quantity delivered/picked up. Trade-approved per OIML R 134 for volume-based commercial measurement. Integration into the port TOS and the existing weighbridge-receipt printing system.
The weigh bridges stayed. One of the two remains as a backup system and for special cases (heavy load outside the standard truck geometry). The second was decommissioned — its footprint is now used for an additional drive-through lane.
What has changed — after 7 months in operation.
| Position | Weigh bridge | OWL EYE® TERMINAL |
|---|---|---|
| Wait time per truck | 8–12 min | under 30 sec |
| Throughput per hour | ~50 trucks (one bridge) | ~180 trucks (double portal) |
| Personnel at the gate | 3 FTE in 24/7 shifts | 1 FTE day shift (supervision) |
| Trade approval | MID/class Y | OIML R 134 for volume |
| Weather sensitivity | wind, frost (bridge ices) | rain uncritical, snow with heated optics |
| Maintenance per year | ~120 h (bearings, load cells, calibration) | ~20 h (sensor inspection, optic cleaning) |
| Investment order of magnitude | mid six-figure per bridge | mid to high six-figure (full double portal) |
The operational change — in one sentence. The weigh-gate shift no longer exists. Night operation runs unstaffed with automatic gate control; on anomalies (e.g. unusual cargo geometry) a colleague from the port control centre is connected via camera and intercom. The freed-up daily personnel capacity was not cut — it was redeployed into plant service, where the operator has been short-staffed for years.
ROI as an order of magnitude. The eliminated shifts (nights plus weekends, several FTE) translate into a four-digit hourly saving per year — fully loaded, a high six-figure line item. The double portal pays back, per the operator, in under 30 months, even before the softer effects (no queue on the federal road, fewer haulier complaints, faster ship loading) are taken into account.
What was not promised. Trade-approved volume measurement does not replace mass weighing in every country and for every material — it works for fertilisers and grain; for bulk materials with unknown or strongly varying density, a weigh bridge stays mandatory. The port therefore deliberately picked the hybrid setup: drive-through for 90 % of trucks, weigh bridge as backup for the remaining 10 %.
What the operator says in hindsight. The decisive effect is not trade approval (that is the precondition) — it is that the weighing step stops being an operational bottleneck. As soon as truck handling takes seconds instead of minutes, "the gate" disappears from the daily operations meeting — and that is measurable: at this port the weekly gate escalations went from 12–18 to zero.
More at /truck-terminal/ and /industries/.
The starting point. A North-Sea port operator handles, in the bulk segment (fertiliser components, grain imports, residual coal), more than 800 trucks on peak days. Until 2024 that ran across two classic weigh bridges at the gate: drive on, wait for the load cell to stabilise, talk to the driver, print the slip, drive off. Per truck averaging 8–12 minutes; on peak days the queue ran back onto the federal road. Three consequences: complaints from neighbours, penalty exposure to the haulage companies, and 24/7 shift staffing at the weigh gate with three FTE.
Why a second weigh bridge was not the answer. The bottleneck was not the number of bridges — it was the measurement procedure itself. A weigh bridge requires the truck to stand still for a stable reading (typically 20–40 seconds), plus time for approach, positioning and receipt. A second bridge would have doubled throughput — staffing at the gate would have grown along with it, and the build time for an additional trade-approved weigh bridge runs 9–14 months.
The installation. In April 2025 OWL EYE® TERMINAL was installed as a double portal: two drive-through measurement stations, each with a multi-sensor cluster overhead and on the side. The truck drives through at 10 km/h — the LiDAR system scans volume and geometry of the load before and after loading; the difference is the quantity delivered/picked up. Trade-approved per OIML R 134 for volume-based commercial measurement. Integration into the port TOS and the existing weighbridge-receipt printing system.
The weigh bridges stayed. One of the two remains as a backup system and for special cases (heavy load outside the standard truck geometry). The second was decommissioned — its footprint is now used for an additional drive-through lane.
What has changed — after 7 months in operation.
| Position | Weigh bridge | OWL EYE® TERMINAL |
|---|---|---|
| Wait time per truck | 8–12 min | under 30 sec |
| Throughput per hour | ~50 trucks (one bridge) | ~180 trucks (double portal) |
| Personnel at the gate | 3 FTE in 24/7 shifts | 1 FTE day shift (supervision) |
| Trade approval | MID/class Y | OIML R 134 for volume |
| Weather sensitivity | wind, frost (bridge ices) | rain uncritical, snow with heated optics |
| Maintenance per year | ~120 h (bearings, load cells, calibration) | ~20 h (sensor inspection, optic cleaning) |
| Investment order of magnitude | mid six-figure per bridge | mid to high six-figure (full double portal) |
The operational change — in one sentence. The weigh-gate shift no longer exists. Night operation runs unstaffed with automatic gate control; on anomalies (e.g. unusual cargo geometry) a colleague from the port control centre is connected via camera and intercom. The freed-up daily personnel capacity was not cut — it was redeployed into plant service, where the operator has been short-staffed for years.
ROI as an order of magnitude. The eliminated shifts (nights plus weekends, several FTE) translate into a four-digit hourly saving per year — fully loaded, a high six-figure line item. The double portal pays back, per the operator, in under 30 months, even before the softer effects (no queue on the federal road, fewer haulier complaints, faster ship loading) are taken into account.
What was not promised. Trade-approved volume measurement does not replace mass weighing in every country and for every material — it works for fertilisers and grain; for bulk materials with unknown or strongly varying density, a weigh bridge stays mandatory. The port therefore deliberately picked the hybrid setup: drive-through for 90 % of trucks, weigh bridge as backup for the remaining 10 %.
What the operator says in hindsight. The decisive effect is not trade approval (that is the precondition) — it is that the weighing step stops being an operational bottleneck. As soon as truck handling takes seconds instead of minutes, "the gate" disappears from the daily operations meeting — and that is measurable: at this port the weekly gate escalations went from 12–18 to zero.
More at /truck-terminal/ and /industries/.
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