Queue monitoring that measures wait time and signals when to open a till
A camera over the till area counts people in line and how long they wait. When the queue exceeds your standard, the manager gets a Telegram signal to open another till. A report on yesterday arrives every morning.
What hurts
Customers walk out of the queue, and you only learn about it from reviews. The store manager is busy and notices the line when it is already out the door.
Nobody knows how long customers actually wait. There is a service standard on paper, but no way to check it. Till rotas are planned on gut feeling.
In a branch or pharmacy, peaks come unevenly. An extra person is either always on shift or never. There is no data on exactly when they are needed.
What we build
- Connection of cameras over the till or counter area via RTSP/ONVIF
- Counting people in line for each till or service desk
- Wait time and service time based on each person’s path
- Thresholds for your standard: queue length, minutes waited
- Telegram signal with a frame when a threshold is crossed
- Morning report: peak hours, average times, breaches
- Dashboard by site and hour, with no face recognition
What you get
- Queue monitoring running at your sites
- Telegram bot with alerts and a daily report
- Dashboard with queue and service time history
- Accuracy report compared with manual timing
- Documentation and an SLA for support
How we measure the result
- Average and maximum wait time by hour
- Number of standard breaches per day and per site
- Time from signal to an extra till being opened
- Gap against manual timing on control samples
Systems and stack
Industries
Questions
How much does queue monitoring cost?
From $5,000. The price depends on the number of sites and tills, the layout (one queue or several parallel lines), and integration with the POS or a ticketing system. We give a fixed estimate within 2-3 days after the camera audit.
Will our cameras work?
You need a camera that sees the whole queue area from above or at an angle. Surveillance cameras over tills are usually fine. If the queue extends out of frame, the audit will suggest turning a camera or adding one.
How is wait time measured?
The system tracks a person from entering the queue area to reaching the till, and from start to end of service. We do not recognise or store faces, only an anonymous path, which keeps GDPR review simple. AI can lose track in a dense crowd, so we measure accuracy against manual timing.
Can you connect a ticketing system or POS?
Yes. If you have a queue ticketing system or a POS with an API, we connect it. Service time then comes from the system, and the camera counts people waiting without a ticket. For banks and pharmacies this gives a fuller picture.
How long does launch take?
Usually 3-6 weeks. First one site, an accuracy check and thresholds agreed with you. Then the other sites follow the same setup, with weekly demos throughout.
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Describe the task. The first call is with the founder.
We reply within one business day. 30 minutes to tell you whether it is worth doing and what it costs.