Abstract: In the case of a method of controlling the transport speed of a transport and gathering unit, wherein filling-material stacks are moved from an inlet to an outlet of the gathering path making use of at least one transport means and wherein filling-material units can selectively be added to the filling-material stacks at one or at several adding stations, at least one measure is determined for each filling-material stack at the inlet of the gathering path, each measure for each filling-material stack is increased at each adding station by a respective value corresponding to the filling-material unit added, if the filling-material stack has added thereto a filling-material unit, each measure of each filling-material stack is compared with a respective set value associated with the transport means, and the transport speed is controlled in dependence upon the result of the comparison.