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How APMT Gothenburg Cut Truck Turnaround Time by 55%
Efficiency transformation: More cargo, faster turnaround, lower emissions.
APM Terminals Gothenburg in Sweden is one of Northern Europe’s busiest intermodal terminals, handling over 800,000 TEU annually and capable of serving vessels of 24,000+ TEU. Like many high-volume terminals, APMT Gothenburg operates under constant pressure to keep service quality high while controlling costs and resources.
Three strategic pillars guide every investment decision at the terminal: digitalization, efficiency, and environmental responsibility. Judged against all three, the legacy gate and cargo-handling workflows were areas that needed automation – they were creating bottlenecks at truck entry and exit. The benefits of automation and digitized handling events also played a central role in driving the transformation – replacing manual data entry with verified, real-time information across the key operational areas.
• APM Terminal Gothenburg, Sweden
• Annual throughput volume: +800,000 TEUs
• Vessel capacity: Up to 24,000+ TEU
• Services: Intermodal (sea, road, rail)
• Strategic focus: Digitalization, efficiency, environmental responsibility
Phase 1: Road and rail gate automation with OCR
Visy was selected to design and deploy a complete gate automation environment, introducing access management tools and optical character recognition (OCR) technology to capture and verify container and vehicle data automatically. The system was delivered during 2017-2018.
Visy Truck Gate
- 4 x Visy Truck OCR portals (2 inbound, 2 outbound) capture high-quality images and recognize cargo markings such as container IDs and ISO codes as well as seal presence
- Multiple license plate recognition checkpoints across the gate area
- Visy Access Gate environment: Gate kiosks, RFID readers, intercoms, and PIN code readers
- Fully integrated workflow to drive automated processing and truck transactions
Visy Rail Gate
- 1 x Visy Rail OCR portal with Visy Train Gate user application: Automated high-quality imaging of cargo and wagons, and capturing identifier data such as container IDs, tank IDs, IMO and ADR labels, wagon IDs
- Direct data feed to the terminal operating system (TOS) for seamless management
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy Access Gate
Visy Access Gate is a highly versatile Gate Operating System (GOS) designed to streamline and automate gate operations and access management at industrial sites.
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy Truck OCR Portals
Visy Truck OCR Portal images and digitizes road cargo traffic as vehicles drive through the portal – without interrupting traffic flow.
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy ANPR
Visy ANPR is Visy’s in-house developed license plate recognition software, built on decades of deep learning development.
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy Service Kiosks
Visy Service Kiosks are self-service transaction checkpoints designed to streamline gate visits at container terminals, ports, and industrial facilities.
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy Rail OCR Portal
Visy Train OCR Portal automates the monitoring and data collection of rail cargo traffic. As trains pass through the portal, the system captures high-quality images of all wagon and container sides, and extracts key information in real time.
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy Train Gate
Visy Train Gate is the desktop management application at the center of the Visy Rail OCR Portal system. As trains move through the portal, all captured data is made available in the Train Gate.
View images
Reducing operational emissions through gate automation and OCR
CO₂ emissions reduced from shorter truck turnaround times and reduced dwelling
Phase 2: Crane OCR Deployment
Following the success of Phase 1, APMT Gothenburg wanted to expand the OCR-driven automation to quayside crane operations and rail interchange area. During the Phase 2, Visy delivered and deployed high-performing OCR systems for the cranes with a tight Navis N4 integration.
7 x Crane OCR & TopView systems to STS cranes
- Visy Crane OCR with LaneView (pan-tilt-zoom cameras) and TopView (spreader-mounted camera system)
- Automatic imaging and marking recognition of all crane lift events. Capturing container IDs, ISO codes, IMO labels, door orientation, and lift types. Also, image record of container sides: front, door, long sides and roof.
- Visy ADDS – automatic damage detection
- Data exchange with N4 TOS
2 RMG cranes
- Short-side container imaging during rail-side loading and unloading, capturing container IDs, ISO codes, and door direction
- Terminal tractor number recognition to match lifting task with the prime mover
- Data exchange with N4 TOS
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy Crane Gate
Visy Crane Gate is the desktop management application at the center of Visy’s crane OCR systems. The application gives operators and supervisors direct, real-time visibility into container handling events.
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy STS OCR
Visy STS Crane OCR automatically images all container sides and recognizes container IDs, ISO codes, dangerous goods labels (IMDG/ADR), seal presence, and door direction while containers are being handled by ship-to-shore cranes.
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy TopView
Visy TopView is a spreader-mounted OCR camera system that automatically reads container IDs from the roof during each lift.
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy RMG OCR
Visy RMG OCR images and identifies containers. Fixed cameras mounted on the crane legs or beams capture high-quality images of container sides during each lift.
SYSTEMS & USER APPLICATIONS
Visy ADDS 2.0
AI-powered condition inspection at every entry point. Visy ADDS uses Deep Neural Network architecture to automatically detect structural and surface damage on containers as they pass through gate portals, crane operations, or rail imaging portals.
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Data integrity and safety
Digitalization of all truck, vessel, and rail events
Visy Access Gate – Visy Train Gate – Visy Crane Gate – Navis 4 TOS
Virtually no mistakes in data
Eliminates fraud risk and ensures accurate cargo tracking
Single source of truth
All systems feed TOS, eliminating silos and manual reconciliation
Terminal automation investment achievements
The success at APMT Gothenburg came down to one thing: every investment had a clear purpose. Rather than deploying technology for its own sake, each phase was evaluated against the terminal’s three core priorities: digitalization, efficiency and environmental responsibility.
Starting with gate automation and expanding to crane and rail operations allowed value to be proven at each stage before scaling. By the time Phase 2 launched, the integrations were solid, staff were confident and the benefits were already visible. Central to all of it was the Navis N4 TOS integration with Visy Access Gate, Train Gate and Crane Gate – all feeding the same system, there was no duplicate data entry and no fragmented view of terminal operations.
The results speak for themselves. Truck turnaround times dropped by 55%, OCR recognition rates exceed 99% and rail capacity is on track to double all while measurably reducing the terminal’s environmental footprint. APMT Gothenburg demonstrates what’s possible when automation is strategic, built on strong integration and deployed with a clear long-term plan.
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