Brazilian customs does not just recommend OCR at port gates; it requires it and sets an accuracy standard. Other regulators are moving in the same direction.
OCR as a legal requirement
In most countries, automatic container-code reading at the gate is optional. Useful, but optional. In Brazil it is not.
Since late 2022, customs-bonded ports, dry ports, airport cargo facilities and logistics enclosures across Brazil have been legally required to read license plates and container codes automatically at their gates. Brazilian customs didn’t just ask operators to automate; it specified OCR, defined what must be read and set a performance standard, above 90%. This number turns automation from ambition into a measurable pass mark.
What Brazilian Authorities actually ask for
A bonded facility in Brazil has to automatically capture, in real time and without manual intervention:
- The license plates on the truck, front and rear, plus any trailer or semi-trailer
- The container number
- The wagon number, in the case of rail transport
Each read must be linked to the vehicle’s or train’s entry or exit record, including the related video and remain searchable afterwards. If customs wants to type in a container number six weeks later and see the truck that carried it, the system must provide it.
A facility that fails a technical requirement receives a formal warning. If the issue remains, customs can suspend cargo handling, storage and clearance at the site, alongside daily fines. For a terminal, that is not just a compliance issue. It is a business-critical risk.
Brazil is first, not alone
Brazil is unusual in naming the technology – OCR – explicitly. Still, what is spreading is the obligation underneath it: the requirement to prove, from data rather than paperwork, exactly what crossed your gate and when.
European customs rules oblige terminals to trace the identity, status and movement of everything they store, and EU cargo systems now demand accurate container numbers before a box is loaded. It is also mandatory that the container carries a CSC container certification, an international safety approval ensuring the containers’ suitability for multimodal transport, before entering a Terminal. Additionally, technical wagon inspections are mandatory for all trains and trucks. Mexico’s customs reform, live since January 2026, requires bonded facilities to run connected inventory, video and real-time tracking that customs can see remotely. Argentina requires cameras positioned so the truck and the container can be identified at every gate crossing.
Different rules, one direction: the gate must produce a clean, time-stamped, auditable record of what passed through it. Traceability and automation of entry and exit processes are becoming increasingly important all around the world. Almost no operator objects to automating the gate. They object to what it has historically cost: gantries, lighting rigs, specialist camera arrays, lanes closed during installation, and a decade tied to one vendor’s hardware. For a mid-sized terminal facing a deadline, that’s a capital project, not a purchase, which is why plenty of gates are still run with a clipboard and a radio.
That equation has changed, and that’s where AllRead comes in.
How AllRead contributes
Since 2019, AllRead has been deploying gate automation solutions with the mission of making them accessible to ports and terminals around the world, lifting the technical and economic barriers to their adoption. Accessible in three ways
- Affordability and return on investment: by requiring less hardware and civil works, and reusing existing infrastructure, total cost of ownership is divided by three.
- Adaptability: the AllRead approach adapts to the terminal, not the other way around — space is scarce.
- Time to value: simple installation and integration allow the port to start operating in record time.
Let’s talk about what that would look like at your gate.