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About this tool
Estimate unsupervised door openings per day from headcount and entry type, then get the control tier and polite challenge scripts to match.
Tailgating is walking into a controlled area behind someone who is authorised, and this explainer sizes it as an opportunity count rather than a scare story: door openings per day equal headcount times trips per person, plus visitors and deliveries. The share of those openings nobody supervises comes from what the entrance actually is — an unstaffed badge reader leaves roughly three quarters of openings unsupervised, a staffed reception far fewer, and speed gates with anti-passback admit one person per authorisation. Policies such as visible badges, escorting and permission to challenge reduce the remainder multiplicatively, and the tool then names the control tier the site needs and the polite scripts that make challenging normal.
Open Tailgating and Badge Policy Explainer on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Add your input to the workspace.
Adjust the options until the result looks right.
Copy or download the output and put it to work.
Turns access control into openings per day and per year, which is the language a budget conversation needs.
Policy, supervision and physical enforcement are separated so you buy in the right order.
Four non-confrontational lines that let staff refuse without feeling rude.
It is entering a controlled area by following an authorised person through the door, without presenting your own credential. Piggybacking is the variant where the authorised person knowingly holds the door open; both defeat a badge reader because the reader only counts authorisations, not bodies.
In order of effect: give staff written permission and words to challenge, escort every visitor, require visible badges, alarm propped doors, and then, if the site warrants it, install speed gates or an airlock with anti-passback so one authorisation admits one person. Behaviour alone stops scaling once a busy entrance passes a few hundred openings a day.
No. Nobody should block, grab or detain anyone — the response is to badge in for yourself, let the door close, and direct the person to reception, then tell security or the facilities team. A policy that expects confrontation puts staff at risk and will be quietly ignored.
Anti-passback records the direction of each badge use and refuses a second entry until that badge has been used to exit, which prevents one person badging in and passing the card back. It is the control that removes consensual badge sharing, and it only works where every entry and exit is read.