Enforcement camera systems compared

Enforcement

The London Borough of Havering is considering three manufacturers’ camera enforcement systems for a weight restriction that lorries regularly flout. 

The council plans to install a camera enforcement scheme to enforce an existing 7.5-tonne restriction in Rainham village. Offices are comparing the systems provided by Vidalert, TES, and Siemens. 

“Vidalert cameras will capture the vehicle registration mark for every vehicle and a real-time DVLA look-up is performed to determine classification and gross weight of the vehicle,” officers told councillors. “This means that DVLA look-ups will be performed on every vehicle entering or exiting the zone. DVLA look-ups can be charged for individually or an annual fee [£7,200] can be paid to Vidalert, which would provide us with up to 25,000 look-ups per month.” 

Havering said the estimated cost for one Vidalert camera, accompanying hardware and the necessary software (excluding DVLA look-ups) was £19,000. 

The Siemens cameras would operate in a similar way. The estimated initial cost for one Siemens camera, accompanying hardware and necessary software is £26.5k (excluding DVLA lookups). The DVLA look-ups would be charged on a tiered basis dependent on the amount of look-ups completed. “This price ranges from 4p a vehicle to 29p a vehicle,” said Havering officers. 

The TES system works in a different way. “TES can provide cameras with technology that can measure the width, height and length of every vehicle in real-time. Any vehicle that the camera ‘thinks’ is oversize will have a DVLA look-up performed. 

“Only looking up those it thinks are oversize reduces overhead data and DVLA look-up charges.” 

The estimated cost for one TES camera, accompanying hardware and necessary software (excluding DVLA look-ups) is £24.5k. “The reduced amount of DVLA look-ups required using this technology could result in significant and ongoing savings when compared to either paying an annual flat rate or 0.5p for every individual vehicle look-up,” said officers.

The council is to hold site meetings with all three suppliers.