At half past six the first lorry is at the gate, at a quarter to seven the second, and by seven the queue is backing onto the road. Nobody is doing anything wrong: they are all waiting their turn for the induction. That morning still costs you more than you think. Here is what a queue really costs and how to speed up construction site access control.
What a queue at the gate costs
Run the numbers with your own figures. Say forty people arrive each morning, and each of them spends six minutes signing in, going through the induction and being checked.
Those figures are assumptions rather than research, so put your own in; the order of magnitude holds either way. And that counts waiting time alone. What sits on top is harder to price and just as real: a crane idle because the operator is still at reception, a delivery that misses its slot, and a gateman who spends half the morning handing out forms.
Where the time actually goes
A queue is rarely caused by one slow step. There are three, and they stack.
The induction itself
The largest item, and the only one that has to happen on its own terms. A ten-minute film in reception is ten minutes a head, and with one screen, numbers two and three wait for number one to finish. The induction is not the problem; the fact that it has to happen here and now is the problem.
Signing in
Name, company, vehicle registration, signature. On paper that is a minute or two each, plus retyping it afterwards. Leafing through a folder to check whether somebody came last year adds five more.
The check
Has this person had the induction, is it still current, and do they hold the cards this work calls for? With no system, that is a question for the site manager, who at that moment is somewhere out on site.
Induct before arrival, not at the gate
The fastest gate is the one where nothing is left to do. That means separating the induction from the moment of arrival.
Send the QR code with the invitation or the works order, so people complete the induction on the way or the evening before. For anyone turning up unannounced, the same QR code is on the gate: they scan it with their own mobile phone and work through the induction sitting in the cab rather than standing at a desk. Both routes produce the same record, and neither has anybody waiting for a screen.
Which format suits you, and what each one costs in waiting time, is set out in the comparison of digital site inductions.
Anyone already inducted drives straight through
The second saving is with repeat visitors. A driver who delivers here every week does not need a fresh induction; theirs only needs to be demonstrably still valid.
So record per person when they completed the induction and against which version, and agree how long it stands. At the gate it is then one scan: valid, green light. Expired, or a new version, and the induction starts again. That distinction is the difference between forty inductions a morning and five.
It also lets you offer a separate QR code and induction per audience, since a driver has no need of the full contractor induction. The article on visitors, drivers and contractors sets out how to split it.
How Jan De Nul does it
At Jan De Nul the mix at the gate changes daily: permanent staff, subcontractors, drivers, suppliers and visitors. The approach there runs to four steps: scan, sign in, complete the induction, approval. No app to install, no login code, just the camera on their own phone and WhatsApp, email or web chat.
Because finishing the induction is the condition of being let on site, there is no longer any argument about who had what. The record builds itself along the way rather than afterwards.
For what an induction is and what the law requires, see the guide to site inductions.
From four hours of waiting to four steps
Scan, sign in, complete the induction, approval. No app, no login code, and the record is right first time.
