Selling the car deck by the lane-metre

Why measure a car deck in lane-metres?

Counting vehicles treats a hatchback and an articulated lorry as the same thing. A deck booked by headcount looks full when it is half empty, or looks half empty until the third lorry arrives at the gate.

In BORA's Vehicles module each deck is described per vessel in lane-metres, weight limit and slots. A vehicle booking is measured against that real capacity: it consumes lane-metres and weight, not just a place in a count. Remaining car-deck capacity reflects what has actually driven aboard.

How does lane-metre pricing work?

BORA's Car-deck pricing sets the rate a vehicle pays by class, length, route and season, against the lane-metres it consumes. A lorry and a car on the same deck pay for what they actually take, rather than a flat per-vehicle fare.

A rule change applies forward to new sales; vehicle tickets already issued keep their price.

What happens when the vehicle arrives at the terminal?

The vehicle gate reads the vehicle as it arrives. ANPR cameras read the plate and match it to the booking, or take a walk-up and price it on the spot. The vehicle is measured against the deck limits, assigned to a deck that can take it, and the correct lane opens — with no marshal directing traffic at the barrier.

An oversize vehicle is caught at the gate, not discovered on the ramp, and the measurement feeds straight back into capacity: the deck plan the crew works from reflects what has actually driven aboard, not what was booked in the abstract.

Where does freight fit in?

Freight shares the same deck and the same ledger. In Cargo / Freight a consignment is booked on a paperless consignment form, measured against deck capacity, priced, and manifested alongside every passenger and vehicle on the sailing, so a mixed sailing is one picture rather than a freight spreadsheet reconciled against a passenger system.

If a vessel is reconfigured — a deck closed, a cabin block withdrawn — the change is made once in Vessels and reaches capacity, pricing and boarding at once.

Who sells their decks this way?

Tuule Liinid connects the Estonian mainland to its western islands on short, weather-exposed crossings. Its vehicle decks are booked to the metre and measured at the gate against the deck plan, across 18 scheduled sailings a day on 3 routes and more than 120,000 vehicles a year.

On the Saaremaa routes, seasonal demand means vehicle decks have to be planned to capacity: 10 crossings a day in peak season, with 4 vessels in the fleet.

Blue Wave Corporation, which operates a 589-ft cargo Ro-Pax ferry in Panama with 1,925 lane-metres of freight vehicles, ran its sales, boarding and reporting on BORA.

What does the vehicle gate not do?

It measures for deck assignment, not for a legal weighbridge certificate, and it does not weigh hazardous or special cargo to regulatory standard. Cargo / Freight books and manifests a load; it does not certify dangerous-goods handling.

It also does not override a manual hold: a vehicle flagged for inspection still stops for a person. The gate automates the standard case, not every case.