diff --git a/service/src/main/java/crawlercommons/urlfrontier/service/rocksdb/QueueMetadata.java b/service/src/main/java/crawlercommons/urlfrontier/service/rocksdb/QueueMetadata.java
index 3d599a4..2df8c56 100644
--- a/service/src/main/java/crawlercommons/urlfrontier/service/rocksdb/QueueMetadata.java
+++ b/service/src/main/java/crawlercommons/urlfrontier/service/rocksdb/QueueMetadata.java
@@ -127,6 +127,14 @@ public void incrementActive() {
         active.incrementAndGet();
     }
 
+    public void setActiveCount(int value) {
+        active.set(value);
+    }
+
+    public void setCompletedCount(int value) {
+        completed.set(value);
+    }
+
     public void incrementCompleted() {
         completed.incrementAndGet();
     }
diff --git a/service/src/main/java/crawlercommons/urlfrontier/service/rocksdb/RocksDBService.java b/service/src/main/java/crawlercommons/urlfrontier/service/rocksdb/RocksDBService.java
index a2a3a28..8bcb9fa 100644
--- a/service/src/main/java/crawlercommons/urlfrontier/service/rocksdb/RocksDBService.java
+++ b/service/src/main/java/crawlercommons/urlfrontier/service/rocksdb/RocksDBService.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import io.grpc.stub.StreamObserver;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Map.Entry;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
 import org.rocksdb.BlockBasedTableConfig;
@@ -122,7 +124,8 @@ public RocksDBService(final Map<String, String> configuration) {
             final List<ColumnFamilyDescriptor> cfDescriptors =
                     Arrays.asList(
                             new ColumnFamilyDescriptor(RocksDB.DEFAULT_COLUMN_FAMILY, cfOpts),
-                            new ColumnFamilyDescriptor("queues".getBytes(), cfOpts));
+                            new ColumnFamilyDescriptor("queues".getBytes(), cfOpts),
+                            new ColumnFamilyDescriptor("queueInfos".getBytes(), cfOpts));
 
             long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
 
@@ -161,9 +164,13 @@ public RocksDBService(final Map<String, String> configuration) {
 
             LOG.info("RocksDB loaded in {} msec", end - start);
 
-            LOG.info("Scanning tables to rebuild queues... (can take a long time)");
-
-            recoveryQscan(checkOnRecovery);
+            // full re-check
+            if (checkOnRecovery) {
+                LOG.info("Scanning tables to rebuild queues... (can take a long time)");
+                recoveryQscan(true);
+            } else {
+                recovery();
+            }
 
             long end2 = System.currentTimeMillis();
 
@@ -171,7 +178,22 @@ public RocksDBService(final Map<String, String> configuration) {
         }
     }
 
-    /** Resurrects the queues from the tables and optionally does sanity checks * */
+    private void recovery() {
+        // if a table containing the queues info exists use it,
+        // otherwise just rebuild from the content of the tables
+        int read = 0;
+        try {
+            read = readQueueInfos();
+        } catch (RocksDBException e) {
+            LOG.error("readQueueInfos", e);
+        }
+        // nothing found? rebuild
+        if (read == 0) {
+            recoveryQscan(false);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /** Resurrects the queues from the URL tables and optionally does sanity checks * */
     private void recoveryQscan(boolean check) {
 
         LOG.info("Recovering queues from existing RocksDB");
@@ -513,6 +535,14 @@ public void close() throws IOException {
 
         super.close();
 
+        // persisting the counts for the queues
+        try {
+            writeQueueInfos();
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            LOG.error("writeQueueInfos ", e);
+            rocksDB.destroyColumnFamilyHandle(columnFamilyHandleList.get(2));
+        }
+
         for (final ColumnFamilyHandle columnFamilyHandle : columnFamilyHandleList) {
             columnFamilyHandle.close();
         }
@@ -531,6 +561,72 @@ public void close() throws IOException {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * When shutting down an instance - write the stats about the queues into a table for faster
+     * reloading later
+     *
+     * @throws RocksDBException
+     */
+    private void writeQueueInfos() throws RocksDBException {
+        long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        int queuesWritten = 0;
+        ByteBuffer bb = ByteBuffer.allocate(8);
+        for (Entry<QueueWithinCrawl, QueueInterface> entry : getQueues().entrySet()) {
+            queuesWritten++;
+            int active = entry.getValue().countActive();
+            int completed = entry.getValue().getCountCompleted();
+            bb.putInt(active);
+            bb.putInt(completed);
+            rocksDB.put(
+                    columnFamilyHandleList.get(2),
+                    entry.getKey().toString().getBytes(),
+                    bb.array());
+            bb.clear();
+        }
+        long end = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        LOG.info(
+                "writeQueueInfos stored stats for {} queues in {} msec",
+                queuesWritten,
+                (end - start));
+    }
+
+    private int readQueueInfos() throws RocksDBException {
+        long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        int queuesRead = 0;
+        byte[] firstKey = null;
+        byte[] lastKey = null;
+        ByteBuffer bb = ByteBuffer.allocate(8);
+        try (final RocksIterator rocksIterator =
+                rocksDB.newIterator(columnFamilyHandleList.get(2))) {
+            for (rocksIterator.seekToFirst(); rocksIterator.isValid(); rocksIterator.next()) {
+                if (firstKey == null) firstKey = rocksIterator.key();
+                lastKey = rocksIterator.key();
+                queuesRead++;
+                final String currentKey = new String(rocksIterator.key(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+                final QueueWithinCrawl qk = QueueWithinCrawl.parseAndDeNormalise(currentKey);
+                QueueMetadata queueMD =
+                        (QueueMetadata) getQueues().computeIfAbsent(qk, s -> new QueueMetadata());
+                rocksIterator.value(bb);
+                int active = bb.getInt();
+                int completed = bb.getInt();
+                bb.clear();
+                queueMD.setActiveCount(active);
+                queueMD.setCompletedCount(completed);
+            }
+        }
+
+        if (queuesRead != 0) {
+            // empty the table so that we don't read it again
+            // if there has been a nasty crash
+            rocksDB.deleteRange(columnFamilyHandleList.get(2), firstKey, lastKey);
+        }
+
+        long end = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        LOG.info("readQueueInfos read stats for {} queues in {} msec", queuesRead, (end - start));
+
+        return queuesRead;
+    }
+
     @Override
     public void deleteCrawl(
             crawlercommons.urlfrontier.Urlfrontier.DeleteCrawlMessage crawlID,