Integrated into Palletline’s new forklift truck fleet, Palleteyes utilises CCTV technology, wide-aspect barcode scanners and event processing to deliver visibility and traceability in the palletised freight sector.
Palleteyes is said to deliver improved levels of quality control at the point of unload and reload, eliminating inaccurate scans, improving safety and speeding up Palletline’s freight sortation process across its hubs by more than 15%.
The system, developed in conjunction with Envisage Systems, activates within two metres of a pallet, scanning the barcode and displaying important delivery information, including bay location for the forklift driver. Simultaneously, two HD CCTV cameras are activated, which record a close-up and wide angle video of the pallet’s entire journey from unload to bay to reload, giving members visibility of their freight via a cloud-based portal.
The system also integrates with the forklift’s onboard systems to monitor driver performance and operational productivity. It also weighs each load, sounding an automated alarm to prevent drivers from lifting a pallet weighing more than 400kg above a height of 1.2m – in-line with the latest double-deck trailer loading guidelines from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and the Health and Safety Executive.
Marcus Newport, head of IT at Palletline, said: “This system is the culmination of several years of development in collaboration with network members, and a number of IT and hardware partners, and the result is a powerful, bespoke solution that ticks all pallet tracking requirements and more.
“Prominent IT systems should not only improve the process it was designed for, but also solve the problems you didn’t know you had, and the introduction of Palleteyes has delivered a more streamlined operation in addition to the significant enhancements in freight visibility.”
In collaboration with its forklift truck partner, Linde Material Handling, custom structures were manufactured to house the additional CCTV, PCs, monitors and scanning equipment.
The system was then tested over a 12-month period at Palletline’s Coventry hub and is now operational at its main hub in Birmingham.
Graham Leitch, group managing director at Palletline, said: “This seven-figure investment demonstrates our long-term commitment to operational innovation and the highest standards of visibility, accountability and security for customers’ goods.
“The video footage captured by Palleteyes is already proving significantly more beneficial than the static photo-based systems currently in use across our sector, and the system also brings additional opportunities for training, performance monitoring and data analysis that will enable us to maximise the sustainability, health and safety and energy efficiency of our operation now, and for the future.”
Information from the new Palleteyes system will contribute to more than 500,000 data points utilised by Palletline’s team to further optimise its operation and ensure the right resource levels are in place to meet demand.