Warehouse and logistics security: gate, loads and perimeter

1. The officer holds the day’s arrivals and departures schedule, kept current by the warehouse.
2. They check plate, haulier and driver details against the schedule.
3. They log entry time, destination dock and the seal number of the container or trailer, where there is one.
4. If something does not match, they hold the vehicle at the barrier and alert the shift lead or traffic office.
5. The decision — entry or refusal — is recorded with a name and a time.

Drivers do not wander the warehouse: set a waiting area, a route to the dock and who escorts them. Visitors, technicians and contractors follow the same logic, with document checks before entry.

At logistics sites OVIT guards, the gate officer verifies details on mobile, a supervisor approves the exception, and the decision closes into a time-stamped record (industrial and logistics security).

• Quantity: pallets or cases counted against the delivery note.
• Seal: the seal number on the paperwork matches the one on the vehicle, and the seal is intact.
• Identity: right haulier, right vehicle, right driver for this load.
• Discrepancy: vehicle held, supervisor alerted, photo and note added to the record.

The officer does not improvise checks on vehicles or people. What is checked, by whom and how is set in writing by the warehouse and the security company before the first shift.

The gate check adds to the dock check; it does not replace it. If the warehouse counts quantity at loading, the gate confirms that the same vehicle, with the same seal, is the one leaving.

• Fencing: walk the whole fence and note gaps, places where vegetation or stacked materials touch it, and gates that do not lock.
• Lighting: docks, trailer parking and the corners of the building.
• Parked trailers and containers: sealed, logged and kept away from the fence where possible.
• Detection: sensors or cameras on the fence line that alert the officer on duty, not just a recorder.
• Rounds: varied routes, time-stamped at every checkpoint.

Every OVIT engagement on an industrial site starts with a survey: we walk the fence line and map every entry, blind spot and asset before designing the response. For building sites, see the guide to construction site theft.

• Unbooked arrivals: held outside the barrier until a specific, reachable person approves them.
• Approvals: who the night shift lead is and how the officer reaches them.
• Closed zones: docks and doors not in use are locked and checked on rounds.
• Lone working: an officer alone at night needs a way to call for help and someone who answers.

Night work between 22:00 and 06:00 carries a 25% premium under Greek law (Presidential Decree 62/2025, art. 150 §1), so on a 24-hour post, 8 hours — one third — cost more. At OVIT a real person answers the operations desk, and the client sees rounds and incidents in one live picture through the Guardly platform.

• Separated duties: one person receives, another books, a third approves stock adjustments.
• Locked zones: high-value goods in a locked area with logged access.
• Counts by zone: cycle counts, so a gap is traced to a place rather than the whole stock.
• Staff entry and exit: one controlled entrance, personal belongings kept outside the warehouse floor.
• Hauliers and drivers: collusion with a driver is internal loss too; the seal check at the gate limits it.

The Hellenic Data Protection Authority states that video surveillance may not be used to monitor or evaluate employees (art. 27 of Law 4624/2019). Cameras protect places and goods, not watch staff.

The Authority also states that Directive 1/2011 applies alongside the GDPR and Law 4624/2019, and that no permit or notification is needed. A stock gap does not prove theft: check receipts, returns and damage for the same period first.

• Gate log: vehicle, driver, haulier, entry and exit time, seal, dock.
• Exceptions: what did not match, who was told, who decided and when.
• Rounds: checkpoints with time stamps and observations.
• Incidents: factual description, photos, video clip, actions.

Video has limits: delete within 15 working days at most if nothing happens; footage of an incident against the business up to 30 days, of one involving a third party up to 3 months (Directive 1/2011, art. 8). Decide the same day which footage to keep. Signs go before the camera’s range, naming the controller, the purpose and a contact (art. 12).

Also ask for each officer’s personal work-licence number — category A or B, valid five years (Law 2518/1997, art. 3). At OVIT every exception closes into a structured record that can be exported for audit or investigation. Request a proposal for the gate with the most exceptions, and see what to ask before you sign.