Vehicle access control systems

Types of vehicle access control compared

There are four common ways to identify a vehicle at a gate, and one way to detect that it's there. Most sites combine two: an identifier for the vehicles they know, and loops for barrier safety and counting.

How a vehicle access control system works

1. 1

   The vehicle approaches

   A reader or camera beside the lane picks it up before it reaches the barrier: a windscreen tag at up to 15 metres, or the number plate at 2 to 10 metres.

2. 2

   It becomes an ID

   The tag number or the plate goes to the access control panel as an ID, the same way a card reader sends a card number.

3. 3

   The system checks it

   The panel checks the ID against the access list and its time periods, as it would for a card at a door.

4. 4

   The barrier opens and the entry is logged

   For a valid vehicle the panel opens the barrier or gate and records the event. Loops under the lane stop the barrier closing on the vehicle.

Long-range RFID for hands-free vehicle access

Long-range readers identify a vehicle by a tag on its windscreen, so the driver doesn't stop, wind down the window or reach out to a reader. As Nedap's certified UK partner we distribute and support two readers: the uPASS Go reads passive UHF tags at up to 10 metres, and the Transit Ultimate reads semi-active tags at up to 15 metres with a Compact Button tag, on vehicles moving at up to 200 km/h, with AES-encrypted tag authentication for high-security perimeters.

One credential for people and vehicles

With a Transit booster on the windscreen, the tag carries the driver's own ID card, so the reader checks the vehicle and the driver together and the same card then opens the doors and turnstiles inside. It extends an existing card-based access control system out to the perimeter, with no separate vehicle system to run. The car park access control system page shows it at a car park barrier with Norpass3.

At the Caravan and Motorhome Club, 600 vehicles carry UHF windscreen tags matched to their drivers' proximity cards on Paxton Net2, and an alarm is raised if a vehicle is moved without authorisation. Express Parcel Services identifies its HGVs with Transit Ultimate readers and Norpass3, which cut guarding hours at its Middleton depot. For the comparison with number plates, see long-range RFID vs ANPR on our blog, or browse the long range readers.

Works with your access control, barriers and gates

• Most access control systems: readers and cameras send each vehicle as a Wiegand ID, like a card reader, and the uPASS Go also offers OSDP, RS485 and Ethernet. George Spencer Academy added Nedap ANPR to its existing Paxton Net2 system this way.
• Norpass3, our licence-free access control software, manages vehicles, cards and doors in one system with CRC22x controllers.
• Loop detectors: our 3-Series and 8-Series detectors, designed and manufactured in South Wales, sense vehicles for barrier safety, free exit and counting.
• Barriers, gates and bollards come from their manufacturers; the sites in our case studies use CAME and FAAC barriers.