International border crossings are traditional bottlenecks for global supply chains. To eliminate manual delays and optimize authority resources, MarshallAI partnered with Finnish Customs, Norwegian Customs, Vedia, and Caverion to pilot a groundbreaking automatic border control system for heavy freight traffic at the Kivilompolo crossing.
“Customs wants to participate in projects that encourage experimenting and that help us make our work more efficient and promote a smooth trade in goods. The aim is that after the pilot project, we will be able to introduce the solution also at other border crossing points.”
— Juha Heikkilä, Director of Tornio Customs
The Challenge: Manual Bottlenecks in Remote Locations
Monitoring cross-border cargo traditionally requires manual visual inspections and documentation checks. This slows down the flow of legitimate trade and ties up highly trained customs officials with repetitive tasks. The challenge was to create a digital, automated gatekeeper capable of instantly verifying transport data in a remote, harsh-weather environment without forcing compliant drivers to stop.
The Solution: AI-Powered Visual Identification & Document Matching
To digitalize the flow of information, the pilot relies on a tightly integrated technology stack, with MarshallAI’s computer vision acting as the core identification engine.
Finnish Customs receives advanced data regarding upcoming transports via Vedia’s CaaS (Corridor as a Service) platform. When a freight vehicle physically arrives at the border, industrial camera feeds (installed by Caverion) capture the scene. MarshallAI’s deep learning systems instantly analyze this visual data, identifying the transport and cross-referencing it with the pre-submitted customs documentation in real time.
The Results: Smooth Border Crossings
By shifting the burden of identification from humans to machine vision, the pilot successfully demonstrated a new standard for national border logistics:
- The “Green Light” Workflow: If the AI’s visual identification matches the pre-declared customs information, the driver is cleared instantly and allowed to continue their journey uninterrupted.
- Targeted Inspections: Only vehicles with mismatched data or specific risk profiles are directed to a separate lane for more questioning, drastically reducing unnecessary stops for compliant logistics companies.
- Optimized Human Resources: Automation handles the repetitive visual verification, freeing up customs authorities to focus their expertise on high-value security tasks.
“The automation of border processes is a huge opportunity to enable a more convenient experience for customers. At the same time, authorities can use their resources more efficiently—having computers carry out the tasks they do better than humans. We are keen to continue the journey with the great partners involved in this pilot.”
— Marcus Nordström, CEO of MarshallAI
“We are delighted to be providing the entire system to the Finnish Customs. As an experienced public security provider Caverion sees numerous opportunities to expand the developed solution to other regions and operations related to national borders”, says Jussi Aaltojärvi, Head of Security Solutions Business at Caverion.
— Jussi Aaltojärvi, Head of Security Solutions Business at Caverion.
