L. A. King Company was established in the early 1950's as an audio installation contractor. By the 1970's, it had a well-established reputation in the Southern California area. It's success continued on into the 80's, serving the sound reinforcement needs of churches, schools, theatres, businesses, and even large sports stadiums.
In 1984, a new challenge was presented to L. A. King. APL in San Pedro wanted to try something new at their Marine Container Terminal. An intercom system in the truck scale lanes would be used to talk to drivers without them getting out of their trucks and to "pre-check" them before pulling forward to a booth to receive their paperwork.
At that time, off the shelf communications systems did not stand up well to the harsh marine terminal environment. L.A. King went to work on solving the problem. After some testing and experimentation, they designed and built a custom system, which proved itself worthy in this difficult environment. The concept of "pre-check" or " pre-gate" was born.
This idea slowly gained momentum in the industry. Soon, additional features were being incorporated into the basic intercom system. Truck scale interface to the host, video cameras to read container and chassis numbers, and printers in the truck lanes, all added to the systems ability to move trucks and containers in and out of marine and intermodel facilities with speed and efficiency.
Now, 16 years later, and with over 60 systems across the United States, L. A. King Co. is continuing to search for new technologies to utilize in addressing the needs of the container freight industry.