SmartGate combines AI-powered cameras with Opendock’s gate management features to provide real-time visibility, automation, and security for all vehicle movements in and out of your yard. This feature is designed to help you streamline check-ins, improve carrier compliance, and maintain a fully auditable record of every gate event.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of how SmartGate works, including:

• The AI Gate Feed, where all gate transactions and captured images are displayed

• How SmartGate connects to the carrier self-check-in experience

• How to match gate observations with check-ins

• How to manually check in assets using SmartGate

• How SmartGate automates asset departure and appointment completion

1. AI Gate Feed

The AI Gate Feed page displays all inbound and outbound gate transactions. Here, you can see:

• Timestamped images of each truck passing through your gate. By clicking on the thumbnail image, you can see all the different pictures captured by the different cameras of the vehicle passing your gate. Each gate event is commonly referred to as an observation.
• A flag indicating if the carrier did the self-check-in. More on that in the next section. 
• Asset details such as date and time, direction of movement (inbound/outbound), license plate, trailer number, DOT number, carrier name, and more.
• If enabled, this table would also show if the vehicle or the trailer presents any signs of damage. See more in the damage section. 

Filters:

The search in this table filter will search across all fields in the table. Simply type a License Plate, a DOT, a trailer number, or a carrier name, and all the logs of the assets' movement matching your search will automatically appear.

The Direction Filter will allow you to filter only Ingate or Outgate events. This can be particularly helpful if you mostly want to monitor if carriers check in when entering your Yard.

The last filter, named Picture, will let you select what columns will be displayed in that table. 
 

2. SmartGate’s connection to the gate management carrier's self-check-in feature

In the SmartGate settings: Warehouses>settings>SmartGate

There are two critical settings to connect SmartGates’ AI camera system to the carrier self-check-in:

1. Observation Match Attribute: This setting will define which field will be used to match a carrier self-check-in event with the camera-captured event (Observation). If License Plate is selected, the License Plate field will be added and required in the carrier self-check-in flow. Same if DOT is selected. If Any is selected, it will display both fields, License Plate and DOT, in the carrier self-check-in portal, but only one will be required. This provides the best results, which is why it is set as the default.
2. Observation Match Time Window: This defines the time window in which we would accept a check-in to match with a camera event. If 30 is selected, the check-in must be less than 30 minutes before or after the truck enters your yard to match. This setting was set to avoid doing undesired matches, for example, with several trucks ingating with the same DOT.

The matching status is displayed in the AI gate feed page on the second column. 4 status could exist:

• Yes: The carrier did the self-check-in
• Pending: Waiting for the check-in to happen. It is directly tied to the Observation Match Time Window defined in the settings. If 30 is selected, the observation will be in the Pending state for 30min before switching to “No”
• No: The carrier did not check in (Or a wrong License Plate or DOT was entered). This status enabled the “Add asset button” on the last column in the table. More on that in the next section. 
• MANUAL: In case the asset was manually checked in

3. The matching attribute in the carrier self check-in app

As described above, we require the carrier to fill out the matching field while checking in. To speed up the process, if the carrier checks in after entering the Yard, the matching field will be a drop-down showing the value of the assets automatically captured by the cameras that are in Pending state. See image below: 

3. Check in an asset using SmartGate (connection to Scheduling and YMS)

In the AI gate feed table, when an observation does not match a carrier check-in, a button appears on the right of the table to ADD ASSET.

Once clicked, this asset will open a dialogue showing what information will be ported automatically from the camera Observation to the manual check-in. You can edit or add fields if necessary

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Once created, this check-in will follow the traditional check-in flow. The asset will arrive at your appointment's table as an unplanned arrival. This arrival can then easily be linked to an existing appointment, or an appointment can be created from it. 

 If you have YMS enabled, this manually created check-in will create an asset in your YMS. 

4. Events automation - Automatic asset departure and Appointment end

In the settings: Warehouses > Settings > Smartgate. You will see a field called:

• Auto depart Assets: This setting will automatically depart the vehicle and the trailer attached to it when the cameras detect the vehicle leaving your Yard using the License Plate or the DOT defined at check-in. 

This will also automatically complete the appointment to which the vehicle was linked. 
 

Summary of SmartGate Benefits