No contact at all in Dover

Access control

AS NORTHERN EUROPE’S LARGEST PASSENGER FERRY and cruise Port – not to mention one of the world’s busiest drive-on, drive-off terminals – Dover now handles around 2.6 million cars, 14.7 million passengers, 1.8 million freight vehicles and 19 million tonnes of cargo per annum. Impressive stuff.

With a total of 60,000 staff all requiring access to the Port’s facilities throughout the year, a definitive security solution is paramount. There are two security zones at the Port – the Restricted Zone (for travelling members of the public and staff working directly with ships) and the Controlled Zone (for office staff and contractors who have legitimate business in the Port).

The old access system meant that while the Pass Office was responsible for all permanent passes, gate staff could also issue visitor passes, which often delayed the throughput of traffic. A primary requirement for the new system was to centralise all pass issuing in one place. While the old, permanent passes showed the image of the pass holder, the 48,000-plus visitor passes issued each year held no such image. A decision was made to use contactless access technology. Since proximity readers have no moving parts they are more robust, there are no erasure problems and smart cards can have a life of 50,000 uses – far more than the Magstripe variety.

First City Care supplied software from Geoffrey Industries which met the Port security team’s functional and technical requirements, with Legic supplying the smart card technology. A phased installation period saw old and new readers operating in tandem for a time, with 8,000 new passes issued within the first two months of ‘handover’. The new readers and controllers, installed by First City Care, were followed by doors, pedestrian turnstiles and vehicle gates.