Key Takeaways
- Why Access Control is Essential: Transport and manufacturing sectors are feeling the pressure, with rising costs, labor shortages, and increasing compliance.
- The Benefits are Clear: Integrated solutions can empower your team with actionable intelligence, streamlined operations, and simplified compliance through automation.
- Explore our Gallagher Case Study: Learn how Gallagher's Command Centre enabled the Port of Tauranga to double operational activity while maintaining the same security team.
Across the transportation, logistics, and manufacturing industries, operational demands are at an all-time high. Businesses are grappling with rising costs and labor shortages while trying to meet demands for faster, more reliable deliveries. But what if a single solution could turn that pressure into a competitive advantage?
This article explores the rise of transportation access control. We reveal how Gallagher's integrated solutions, including tools like Command Centre, are streamlining operations, boosting efficiency, and providing the security needed to stay ahead.
3 Key Challenges in Access Control for Logistics and Manufacturing
For facility and operations managers, the challenge is clear: how do you maintain a secure site and protect your assets without sacrificing the speed and efficiency of your business? Here are the key challenges your security must contend with.
Managing Multiple Access Points
These industries are a complex network of gates, loading docks, staff entrances, and specialized zones. Without centralized control over so many entry points, it's tough to maintain a strong manufacturing security posture and track personnel and vehicle movements.
Ensuring Smooth Movement
Maintaining operational flow is essential. The challenge is providing security without creating bottlenecks for personnel, vehicles, and visitors. A system that slows down movement can directly impact productivity and profitability, so it must be fast, accurate, and seamless.
Regulatory Compliance
Maintaining a secure facility is a regulatory requirement. Businesses must comply with standards like FMCSA CSA in transportation and OSHA in manufacturing. Without a comprehensive system, accurately documenting access and proving compliance during an audit can be a complex and time-consuming process.
How Access Control Improves Safety and Operational Efficiency
Think of transportation access control as the intelligent gatekeeper for your entire operation. Here's how this integrated system works to improve the safety of your site and the efficiency of your business.
Managing Personnel Access
Keeping your site safe starts with controlling who can get in. By using credentials like biometrics and badges, coupled with role-based access control, you can ensure sure only the right people can enter critical areas. This not only keeps your manufacturing security tight but also protects your assets and helps stop threats from the inside.
Vehicle Access Control
In transportation and logistics, vehicle access can be a huge headache. Modern transportation access control solutions, like ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) and long-range readers, make it a breeze for trucks and vehicles to get in and out. This keeps your site secure by checking credentials automatically, and it saves a significant amount of time by reducing gate delays and keeping traffic moving.
Real-Time Monitoring
A security slip-up or a small problem can cause serious downtime. Real-time monitoring gives your security team instant alerts for any issues, so they can react right away. This kind of proactive oversight is crucial for staying safe and efficient, because it enables you handle problems before they get out of control.
Gallagher’s Integrated Security Solutions for Transportation and Manufacturing
Gallagher's integrated security solutions do more than just protect your site. Designed with transportation, manufacturing, and distribution in mind, here’s how Command Centre can drive efficiency, enhance safety, and guarantee compliance across your entire operation.
Centralized Control
Gallagher Command Centre is the heart of your security, giving you one system to manage everything across all your sites. This single platform provides full visibility of all your doors, gates, and zones, making your life easier by simplifying security and cutting down on admin work. It enables you to manage people, credentials, and third-party systems, giving you total control over transportation access control and robust manufacturing security, all in one place.
Seamless Integration
Gallagher's solutions are designed to work with your existing setup. Command Centre enables all of your systems to talk to each other, from CCTV and alarms to building management. This means you have a unified system that boosts threat detection, centralizes incident management, and can even trigger an automated responses, like cameras turning on and doors locking down when an alarm goes off.
Mobile Access Solutions
Gallagher's mobile access solutions enable staff and contractors to use secure, Bluetooth-enabled credentials on their smartphones. This not only reduces administrative workload for your admin team but also streamlines access for your workforce. Managers can even approve and revoke access in real-time right from a mobile app, making transportation access control for mobile teams more efficient than ever.
Meeting Compliance with Gallagher’s Access Control Systems
Traditional paper-based security and paper-based systems make compliance a tedious and risky challenge. Here’s how Gallagher’s automated access control provides a simple and reliable solution.
Meeting Regulatory Standards
Gallagher’s integrated solutions are designed to support industry-specific standards. The system helps you meet requirements for driver fitness and controlled access to hazardous zones, simplifying compliance across your sites.
Automated Audit Trails and Reporting
Compliance audits can be complex. Gallagher's solutions simplify this by providing automated reporting and detailed audit trails that record every access event. This replaces time-consuming manual documentation, making it easier to generate the proof you need for an audit.
Competency Checks and Workforce Management
Ensuring only qualified personnel access sensitive areas is critical. Gallagher's systems can be integrated with workforce management platforms to run automated competency checks. This strengthens your manufacturing security and transportation access control by ensuring access is tied to a person's training, preventing unqualified individuals from entering restricted zones.
Case Study: How Gallagher Helped a Major Port Double Capacity and Maintain the Same Security Team
Every major logistics hub faces a constant balancing act between efficiency and security. As one of New Zealand's busiest ports, the challenge for the Port of Tauranga was clear: how to protect its site without creating a single bottleneck?
The Challenge
The pressure to comply with new, strict international security regulations was immense. The port, a massive operation with a constant flow of trucks, needed a solution that could handle over 9,000 cardholders without causing costly delays. As Mike Letica, the port's Security Manager explains, "A constant flow of trucks throughout the day is essential. Trucks delivering containers cannot be backed up waiting."
The Gallagher Solution
To meet these demands, the port implemented Gallagher’s integrated access control solution. All 12 road gates, 4 rail gates, and over 60 doors were managed centrally through Gallagher’s Command Centre software. This single, powerful platform allowed the port to control access for its 9,000 cardholders, restrict entry to specific zones, and provide a clear, auditable trail of all access events, simplifying regulatory compliance.
The Outcome
The results were remarkable. The port's activity almost doubled, from 32,000 to over 61,000 trucks per month. But despite this huge growth, the Gallagher system enabled them to maintain the same number of security staff they had a decade earlier, leading to significant cost savings. The solution didn't just meet their needs. It empowered their growth. As Mike Letica said, "We believe we have a security system that has not only met our growth needs to date, but is going to continue to meet our needs in the future."
The Future of Access Control in Transportation and Manufacturing
The security landscape is always changing, so what if your access control system could protect you today and adapt for tomorrow? Gallagher is always looking ahead, providing our partners with future-proof solutions that integrate the latest innovations in transportation access control and manufacturing security.
The Power of Cloud and IT Integration
Cloud-based and IT-integrated platforms are transforming security. They provide unprecedented scalability, allowing you to manage complex sites from a single dashboard. This streamlines operations, reduces the need for on-site infrastructure, and aligns your security more closely with your business.
Mobile Credentials and Digital IDs
Say goodbye to plastic cards. The future is in your pocket with mobile credentials and Bluetooth-enabled access via smartphones. This offers incredible convenience and provides real-time, flexible credential management. You can instantly issue, revoke, or update access permissions, reducing admin work and boosting efficiency.
Artificial Intelligence and Automation
AI is a critical tool for advanced security. It's being used for advanced threat detection, predictive analytics, and automating routine access tasks. This means stronger security, optimized resources, and lightning-fast response times, crucial for the high-volume environments of logistics and transport.
Get ahead of tomorrow’s security challenges. Download Gallagher Security’s 2025 Industry Trend Report to unlock the insights and innovations reshaping transportation access control.
Why Future-Proofing Your Business Starts with Access Control
We see so many businesses stuck with outdated security that can't keep up with modern demands. The key isn't a simple upgrade. It's a strategic shift to an integrated platform that transforms access control from a passive gatekeeper into a strategic asset.
Gallagher's solutions are designed to do more than just keep the wrong people out. By embracing a unified platform, you can gain actionable intelligence to stay ahead of tomorrow's threats.
Contact Gallagher today to discuss how our transportation access control and manufacturing security solutions can streamline your operations and empower your team.