The invention relates to a control device for a conveyor comprising an elastomeric conveyor belt which is provided with a carrying side for transporting material and a pulley side and comprises, in particular an embedded strength support, an optoelectronic system for optically detecting the belt surface, in particular the carrying side thereof in such a way that it is possible to identify a damage during functioning and to stop the conveyor in the case of a critical situation of the conveyor belt and timely repair it, a process control computer which is connected to said optoelectronic system and used for evaluating all data and interacts, in particular with a traction control, and different other elements of the conveyor, namely a non-driven drum, carrying rollers, a supporting structure and, if necessary other components. The inventive device is characterised in that the totality of the conveyor belt is divided into terminal sectors and each sector is provided with a distinct address in such a way that the sector marking is formed and the detection of each marking is carried out in a contactless manner by means of a first sensing unit, each of the sections is defined by an initial marking whose detection is also contactlessly carried out by means of a second sensing unit, the movable element of the conveyor is provided with an encoding unit and the first and second sensing units and the encoding unit are connected to the process control computer.