Delivery vehicle arrivals: a practical gate procedure for UK sites

The question to settle before the next delivery

A lorry reaches the gate, the driver names a contractor and the receiving team is not answering. Should the guard admit it, hold it or turn it away? A useful delivery procedure gives staff an agreed answer before that situation happens. It connects three decisions: whether the delivery belongs at this site, whether someone can receive it and whether the vehicle can move to its destination under the current site arrangements.

This guide is for security providers and organisations managing their own UK premises. The procedure below is an operational framework to adapt with the person responsible for the site. HSE guidance cited here concerns Great Britain; sites in Northern Ireland should check the corresponding HSENI requirements. A vehicle log supports the process, while the site's transport plan determines safe movement.

Give the gate a usable delivery brief

Before a shift, agree which receiving departments or contractors the gate can contact, who can authorise an unexpected vehicle and which routes or bays are unavailable. Keep an alternative contact for each critical decision. A list of names without a working escalation route leaves the guard dependent on whoever happens to answer a telephone.

Use a short local brief covering the entrance, approved waiting location, destination names, exit route and current restrictions. At a warehouse, this might distinguish goods-in from customer collections. On a construction site, it might identify a changed access route or a delivery that requires a separately arranged unloading team. These are site arrangements to prepare; they are not claims that the logging app manages bookings or unloading resources.

Plan waiting before vehicles start queuing

HSE's traffic management guidance recommends arranging vehicle movements, where possible, to avoid crowding within a site and on surrounding roads. It also recommends avoiding reversing where possible and controlling it effectively where unavoidable. The practical question for the site operator is therefore where a vehicle can safely wait while permission or receiving capacity is checked.

Make that location explicit in the gate brief. If the site has no suitable holding area, management needs an agreed contingency with the delivery organiser; a guard should not invent a roadside waiting instruction. When a queue develops, use the agreed escalation route. Letting vehicles through merely to clear the entrance transfers the problem into the yard and can leave receiving staff facing arrivals they have not accepted.

Check the delivery and the receiving decision separately

At arrival, establish the intended site, receiving organisation and reason for the visit. Ask for the delivery reference where your site's procedure uses one. Then confirm the receiving decision through the approved contact or process. A familiar haulier's name is useful context, but it does not settle whether this particular delivery should enter this particular gate today.

Build exceptions into the instructions: an early arrival, a different registration from the expected vehicle, an unknown contractor or a delivery after the receiving team has finished. Specify who can decide and what the guard does while waiting. Avoid a blanket rule that every mismatch means refusal; equally, avoid treating a plausible explanation as authority. The supervisor or designated receiving contact resolves the exception under the site's rules.

Capture the vehicle only from an agreed safe position

Decide where the vehicle stops for the gate interaction and where the guard carries out the recording task. The photograph should fit the existing safe procedure. A guard should not move into a vehicle's path, climb onto a vehicle or improvise a position around a turning lorry to improve a picture.

Priority Service's published workflow uses the Android phone camera to photograph the vehicle and read its number plate. The guard checks the recognised registration and can correct it before saving. Lighting, camera quality and plate condition affect recognition. Test the capture position with the types of vehicle your gate receives, and agree how staff handle an unreadable plate. A successful plate reading establishes the recorded registration, not the legitimacy of the load.

Give the driver directions they can actually follow

HSE's visiting-driver guidance highlights entrance and exit arrangements, the workplace layout, safe walking routes and parking or unloading procedures. It also recommends cooperation between the site and the driver's employer. This matters particularly when a driver has not visited before: knowing the destination name does not mean knowing how to reach it.

Use an approved map or concise instruction that identifies the route and the receiving point. Ask the driver to confirm the destination in their own words when there is doubt. Deal with language or comprehension difficulties through the site's agreed communication method. If the guard is unsure whether a route is open, check before giving directions rather than relying on yesterday's layout.

HSE also recommends clear, visible signs and notes that an entrance plan can help visiting drivers understand vehicle routes and one-way systems. Review the instructions against what drivers will see on the ground. A gate conversation cannot resolve a sign pointing towards a closed route.

Keep pedestrian movements in the arrival procedure

HSE recommends separating pedestrian and vehicle routes wherever possible and providing appropriate, visible crossing points where they meet. The gate process therefore needs to address what happens when a driver leaves the cab to reach reception, the toilet or a receiving office. Pointing across an active yard is not a complete instruction.

Agree where drivers may leave the vehicle, which walking route they use and who deals with an unavailable safe route. Include passengers where relevant to your site's arrangements. A recorded lorry arrival does not count its occupants or prove that everyone has followed a pedestrian sign-in process. Keep those people-related checks in the appropriate site procedure.

Make the boundary between gate work and marshalling clear

On construction sites, HSE states that people directing vehicle movements must be trained and authorised for that task. A security guard's responsibility for checking entry does not automatically establish that competence. The site should say who provides any required marshalling and how the gate requests that support.

Use a clear stop-and-refer instruction when the required receiving or marshalling arrangement is unavailable. For example, permission to deliver need not mean permission to drive to an unready unloading point. Keep the admission decision and the operational readiness decision visible to the staff involved. The vehicle record can document a movement; it cannot replace a competent person controlling a manoeuvre.

Work through an unexpected-arrival example

Consider this illustrative scenario: a substitute haulier arrives for a contractor, with a registration the guard does not recognise, while the normal unloading area is closed. This is a procedure test, not a customer case study. The guard uses the designated stopping position, checks the registration and delivery destination, and contacts the approved decision-maker.

The receiving contact confirms that the consignment is expected, but the vehicle remains subject to the site's agreed holding arrangements until a suitable route and receiving location are confirmed. The guard then communicates those instructions and records the actual entry when it occurs. If the receiving contact cannot confirm the delivery, the guard follows the referral or refusal process instead of admitting it on the driver's assurance.

In a Priority Service demonstration, ask to see the vehicle-permit and supervisor-approval workflow for this example. Separately rehearse the telephone or radio coordination with the receiving team. Do not assume the app automatically contacts a warehouse, allocates a bay or sends directions to the driver; those capabilities are not advertised on the current site.

Close the visit without overstating what the record proves

Define when and where the departure is recorded, including vehicles leaving by another staffed gate. Agree who handles a missing movement or a device problem and how staff avoid creating conflicting records while correcting the operational history. Test that process with the actual team rather than assuming everyone interprets IN and OUT identically.

Priority Service keeps time-stamped vehicle movements associated with the site, gate and guard, with visit-history review and CSV exports for authorised administrators. Those records can help investigate when a vehicle was recorded entering and leaving. They do not independently prove unloading completion, acceptance of goods, the condition of a load or the driver's location throughout the visit. Keep delivery acceptance in the receiving team's own process.

Use five tests before adopting the procedure

Run an expected delivery, an unknown vehicle needing referral, a delivery with no receiving contact available, a route closure and a departure through a different gate. For each test, check whether the guard can identify the decision-maker, communicate a usable instruction and complete the required movement record. Note where staff must guess; that is where the procedure needs work.

For security companies, agree these decisions with each client rather than copying one site's gate instructions to another. For organisations using their own team, involve both security and the people receiving deliveries. Review exceptions after the trial, especially repeated unconfirmed arrivals or directions that staff struggle to explain. Improve the operational instructions before judging the quality of the logging screen.

See the recording and approval workflow with your own example

Priority Service supports phone-based vehicle capture, registration review, IN and OUT logging, vehicle permits, supervisor approvals and administrator reports. Use the Explore the app features link below to review those published capabilities. Then use Request a demo to bring a real delivery exception from your gate, including the receiving decision and any route restriction.

A useful demonstration should show the guard's record, the supervisor's part in approval and the administrator's later review. Ask which parts of your delivery procedure sit in the app and which remain with the site team. Sources below were checked on 6 October 2026; the procedure recommendations are our practical interpretation of that guidance, to be adapted to your site's assessed risks.

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