C-DRONE GUIDE · 8 AUGUST 2026
Container Yard Inventory by Drone in a Port Terminal: Method, Regulation, Price
A misplaced container in a yard holding several thousand units is never a minor detail : it means a search that ties up a straddle carrier, delays a load, and, repeated several times a week on a large terminal, quickly adds up to hours of lost handling time. Periodic reconciliation of the container yard — checking that each unit actually sits where the terminal operating system (TOS) says it does — nonetheless remains largely a manual, on-the-ground job : walked or driven checks, bay by bay, block by block. A drone, able to methodically fly over hectares of stacked containers and photograph every code within minutes, changes that equation — provided it works within a port-specific regulatory framework that was significantly tightened in 2025. Here is the method, what the law now requires, and what a mission costs in 2026.
Published on 8 August 2026, reviewed on 9 August 2026 — regulations in force as of August 2026.
The problem drone-based counting solves
In a container terminal, the gap between a unit's real position and its declared position in the terminal operating system (TOS) is never an isolated incident : it is a gradual drift, fed by handling mishaps, temporary re-stacking and manual corrections that do not always make it back into the system. A container that cannot be found at load time ties up a handling team and its machine for as long as it takes to locate it : on a large terminal, these one-off searches add up to hours of lost time every week, without ever showing up as a clearly identified budget line.
Periodic reconciliation — physically checking the yard's actual state against its declared state — remains the most reliable fix, but the time it costs in idle ground crews pushes many terminals to space it out more than they would like. The same trade-off shows up in our guide on warehouse inventory by drone, where a methodical flyover beats aisle-by-aisle counting ; a container yard poses the same equation at a different scale, outdoors and across several stacking tiers.
What a counting flight over a container yard delivers
A counting flight is flown in a grid pattern at constant altitude above the storage blocks : the onboard camera systematically photographs the top of every stack, where the ISO 6346 code that uniquely identifies each container is displayed. The resulting stitched orthophoto is a fixed, dated snapshot of the whole yard, usable for a visual, position-by-position check — block, row, bay, stacking tier — and directly comparable against a TOS export.
Automatically reading these codes from aerial imagery, rather than checking them by eye on the orthophoto, is advancing fast in research applied to outdoor logistics. A 2024 paper presented at the ICINCO conference by Belbachir, Ortiz, Hauge, Belbachir, Bonanno, Ciccia and Felline describes a drone-mounted system that automatically detects and localises readable codes (QR or barcodes) on goods stored outdoors, without relying on ground-based positioning infrastructure : the authors report localisation accuracy above 94% indoors and 80% outdoors, despite partial occlusion and the lighting variation typical of an open-air site (see the study on Google Scholar). Applied to a container yard, this kind of approach points toward increasingly automated counting ; in practice today, most providers combine a standard photogrammetric flight with a visual check of codes on the orthophoto — faster and more reliable than a ground survey, but still operator-assisted.
Flying in a working terminal: operational safety and the 2025 port regulatory framework
A container yard is never a static site : quay cranes, rail-mounted gantry (RMG) cranes running on their tracks, straddle carriers and trucks constantly cross paths there. Planning a counting flight therefore means knowing where equipment moves and which time slots see the least activity in the block being flown — a constraint significant enough to have prompted dedicated research : a 2024 study published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering by Tang, Wang, Zhang and Men proposes a path-planning method for a drone inspecting rail-mounted gantry crane tracks in a container terminal, combining an A * algorithm for the global route with an RRT *-type algorithm for local obstacle avoidance around moving equipment (see the study on Google Scholar). On the ground, that caution translates very concretely : the flight is coordinated with the terminal operator, outside the equipment movements scheduled for the block being flown, much as detailed in our guide on drone inspection of a port handling gantry.
Added to this operational constraint is, since 2025, a regulatory framework specific to maritime ports. Law n° 2025-532 of 13 June 2025, aimed at freeing France from the trap of drug trafficking, created Article L.5336-10-5 of the Transport Code, which criminally sanctions the unauthorised use of a drone above a maritime port's administrative boundaries : 1 year's imprisonment and a €15,000 fine in the general case, raised to 2 years' imprisonment and a €30,000 fine when the unauthorised overflight concerns a container-handling installation — exactly the kind of mission described in this guide. The provision does not transfer aerial authority to the port authority (capitainerie), but within its area of responsibility it can prohibit or set conditions on any activity in the port zone, drones included. These port administrative boundaries do not appear on the Géoportail restricted-zone map : the authorisation request is made directly to the port authority or capitainerie, well ahead of the mission, on top of the professional liability insurance and AlphaTango registration required for any service.
The price of a counting mission in 2026
Price depends on the yard's size, the number of blocks to count, and the level of output expected (a simple orthophoto or a position list compared against the TOS). Orders of magnitude observed in France in 2026 (excl. VAT) :
| Service | Observed price (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|
| Counting flight, limited area (under 5 ha, one or two blocks) | €400 to €800 |
| Full terminal count (several blocks, full orthophoto) | lower per-unit rate, quoted based on area |
| Georeferenced position list compared against the TOS export | +€150 to €300 per flight |
| Subscription for periodic counting (weekly or monthly) | quoted, lower per-unit rate |
The comparison that matters is not the price of the flight alone, but the handling time it saves : more frequent counting, made possible by how much faster a drone is than a ground survey, cuts down on the one-off searches for misplaced containers during operations. The same fast drone-counting principle applies to other outdoor-stored fleets, detailed in our guide on counting vehicles in a fleet yard. Request a quote stating the terminal's size and the desired counting frequency.
Does a drone replace the TOS? No: it provides a physical snapshot to compare against what the system declares, in order to identify and correct discrepancies.
Does terminal activity need to stop during the flight? No: the flight is coordinated with the operator to fly each block outside its scheduled equipment movements, without requiring a general shutdown.
Is port authorisation always required? Yes: since the law of 13 June 2025, any flight above a maritime port's administrative boundaries, commercial or pleasure, requires prior authorisation from the port authority, separate from the zones shown on Géoportail.
Does this service also apply to marinas? The criminal framework of the 2025 law covers all maritime ports ; drone counting nonetheless remains most relevant for container terminals, where the volume of stored units justifies the investment.