Skip to main content

Sensor Line joins IRD in €3.8m deal

German ITS firm will be integrated into Quarterhill subsidiary's existing set-up
By Adam Hill January 5, 2021 Read time: 1 min
Sensor Line's in-road sensors will broaden IRD's product suite (© Raisin7036 | Dreamstime.com)

Quarterhill, parent company of International Road Dynamics (IRD), has bought German ITS firm Sensor Line for €3.8m (Can$6m). 

Sensor Line, which was launched in 1996, makes fibre optic traffic sensors for road and rail.

It will be "integrated" into IRD's operation but the Canadian company says it will maintain manufacturing operations at Sensor Line's facility near Munich.

In a statement, Rish Malhotra, IRD CEO, said: “This acquisition broadens our product suite and expands our geographic footprint further into the European market."

Sensor Line has installed more than 50,000 systems in 50 countries worldwide, the company says.

The firm's in-road sensors "will further strengthen our enforcement and tolling services, and our distribution capabilities will open up new opportunities to grow their business", Malhotra continued.

Paul Hill, CEO of Quarterhill, said that Sensor Line was expected to contribute up to Can$5m this year in revenue and indicated that there would be more acquisitions.

"We believe we are just getting started in terms of expanding our ITS business to capitalise on the attractive and growing demand for tech-enabled infrastructure," he concluded.

Related Content

  • August 7, 2018
    Motown morphs into Mobility City
    Detroit was once a byword for urban decay – but ITS America recently held its annual meeting there. This gave David Arminas a chance to assess how fast Motor City is moving down the road to recovery. Motor City, as Detroit is still called, was on its financial knees only five short years ago. The future looked bleak as the city and greater urban area bled jobs and population. It was on 18 July 2013 that Motown, as Detroit is also known, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, the
  • November 29, 2013
    California opts for IRD WIM
    International Road Dynamics (IRD) announced today that it has received a US$1.6 million contract to provide a weigh-in-Motion (WIM) sorter system for a new commercial vehicle enforcement facility (CVEF) near Mountain Pass, California. This system will be used by enforcement personnel to select and direct commercial vehicles into the CVEF. IRD will supply an integrated system including its industry-leading single load cell (SLC) WIM scales and advanced iSINC controller electronics. A total of sixteen SLC
  • June 5, 2014
    The twisting path to enforcement’s future
    Survey reveals some division of views about enforcement’s future as Colin Sowman discovers. Technological advances and legislative changes pose many questions for those involved in road enforcement, ranging from the changing demands of privacy and data protection legislation to the practicalities on multi-speed enforcement. So to get the industry’s views ITS International took soundings on some of these bigger questions. In a world where many vehicles are fitted with GPS linked ‘black box’ telematics system
  • March 20, 2017
    Stocchi takes on transatlantic tolling tasks
    We talk to Emanuela Stocchi, the first overseas-based female president of IBTTA and well placed to view tolling on both sides of the Atlantic. As incoming president of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), Emanuela Stocchi aims to bolster the ‘international, mobility and connections’ elements of the US-based tolling organisation.