Making Safety a priority at the dock

Reduce injuries and gain uptime by equipping docks with the right safety devices.

By -- Modern Materials Handling, 7/1/2000

Receiving and shipping docks are busy places these days. Pressures are high to accept incoming materials swiftly, ship finished goods fast to the demands of just-in-time customers, next-day delivery schedules, and e-commerce promises. You want to maximize the pace and the productivity in this part of your operations.

Yet, docks are inherently hazardous places. Over-the-road trucks, forklift vehicles, pallet jacks, and other materials handling equipment-plus your employee-all come together at loading docks. And sometimes they do so with the wrong results.

In forklift accidents alone, about 100 individuals die each year in the U.S., while 95,000 are injured. Not all of these accidents occur on or near loading docks. But some do. One study, for example, suggests that 7% of all lift truck accidents are caused by running off a loading dock or other surface.

For instance, over-the-road truck drivers have been known to pull away from docks prematurely, sometimes when a forklift and an employee or two are still in the trailer working. Result: another serious accident. Similarly, when a truck brake fails, it rolls away from the dock, and the potential for serious injury occurs again.

Elsewhere, people fall off docks, and pedestrians walk in front of a moving lift truck.

Operator error is the root cause for some of these accidents. Indeed, the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules on training operators of powered industrial trucks have led to greater awareness of safety in receiving and shipping in warehouses, says one dock systems vendor executive.

Warehouse managers now are looking more closely at the sequence of operations performed at the dock, this exec adds. There's more interest in dock systems with a single interlock so that all the individual pieces of equipment "work in unison, and safely."

Equipping docks with levelers, vehicle restraints, barrier gates, stop/go signal light systems, and seals/shelters is a proven route to increased safety and productivity.

Dock levelers are one of your major defenses against injuries and fatalities. They provide a bridge between the warehouse building and the trailer bed. Typically, a single dock position may experience as many as 100,000 crossings a year by forklifts.

Leveler models operate manually with an assist from a spring mechanism, or are they are powered by hydraulic systems, by electric motors, or by inflated air bags.

Manual/mechanical levelers are simplest and least expensive. But they present some ergonomic concerns. The dock operator must walk out on the spring-activated leveler surface and pull a chain so that the leveler rises up and starts to move into position. Then the operator must "walk" the unit into place, using body weight to counter the action of the leveler's inherent upward bias force.

Powered leveler units, in contrast, perform this positioning step hydraulically, electrically, or pneumatically. They also can be tied into a master control panel so that the dock operator has greater control over various truck servicing steps.

Be sure when you select a leveler that its width meets the needs of the truck traffic appearing at your facility. Also, length is important. Too short a leveler and your forklifts will have a tougher time getting into and out of trailer beds because of the steeper grade created.

Vehicle restraints are designed to hold the over-the-road truck trailer or other vehicle in place, at the dock, while all loading and unloading operations are performed. Originally, this device was engineered so that it grabs or hooks onto the trailer's rear impact guard, or ICC bar, and provides a restraining force. More recently, different designs and devices have been offered.

Some of these alternative restraints act by providing a barrier against the guard. Some function by blocking movement of the tires of the trailer or other vehicle at the loading dock.

Cost will be a factor in your choice of one restraint type over another, as will the kinds of trucks appearing at docks. Barrier restraints used to secure trucks with rear impact guards run roughly $1,500 to $6,500 each on an installed basis. More costly are the wheel blocking restraints which are priced around $8,500 to $11,000 or more per unit installed. But if your operation services very many trucks without rear impact guards or trucks with liftgates, then the investment may well be worthwhile.

Barrier gates installed on the interior side of dock doors are another safety enhancing option. When the door is open and no truck or trailer is in place, they prevent accidents. Manual or powered gates help keep people, goods, and lift trucks from inadvertently falling off the end of a vacant dock position. Chains across the vacant area are a low cost option, too.

Seals and shelters will keep the dock area dry instead of wet and slippery when it rains or snows and blows. And they are another important safety measure that will lessen the chances of injury to personnel and damage to materials.

Dock seals and shelters provide a means to close off the air gaps that form between a freight carrier's vehicle and the dock position and building. A seal requires the driver to back the trailer until it contacts the seal's pads and then compresses the trailer against this device. Shelters, on the other hand, require the driver to back inside of this kind of equipment. Then the shelter encloses or hugs the outer wall of the trailer or truck.

Stop/go lights and other signaling systems, together with caution signs, on the outer dock face will help ensure improved communications between the driver of the over-the-road truck, the operator of the forklift, and dock employees. When a red light is on, for example, the truck should be braked and possibly secured by a vehicle restraint. These stop/go systems can be tied into the master control panel.

Lighting of the dock area is important too, and especially so when your facility operates on second and third shifts. Lights will improve the visibility out on the dock, around the truck, and inside it as well.

All of these various measures will heighten safety. Individual pieces of equipment need to be thought of, and integrated together, as a stepwise procedure for accident prevention. Vendors now offer dock systems, not just isolated pieces of equipment. Think system, think safety!

Reducing risks at Harley's docks

Rightly or not, many riders of Harley-Davidson motorcycles have reputations as risk takers. But for the people who build "hogs," safety is a very high priority. That's very evident at the loading docks of Harley's new, 280,000 sq. ft. parts distribution center in Franklin, Wisc.

With these docks seen as potentially the most hazardous area of the DC, Harley specified state-of-the-art loading dock systems.

"When we invest in equipment, especially in an area as critical as the loading dock," says Larry Kozelek, plant operations manager, "we always look for three things. It needs to be flexible enough to suit our needs well into the future. Second, it has to meet the same standards of quality and innovation that Harley-Davidson puts into its motorcycles. And last, but most important, it must add to the high level of safety at the facility."

Harley chose hydraulic dock levelers (Rite-Hite, www.ritehite.com) for all its dock positions. The levelers offer ergonomic and performance advantages over mechanical levelers. They also have an automatic, return-to-dock feature, which positions the leveler at a safe level for cross traffic after use. And the hydraulic levelers have velocity fuse free-fall protection. If the leveler lip loses contact with the trailer bed, the fuse stops the fall of the leveler.

For flexibility, Harley opted for a wheel-locking vehicle restraint (Rite-Hite) at one of its dock positions. This restraint offers greater flexibility than traditional restraints because it can secure virtually all configurations of trailers to the loading dock.

Unlike restraints that grab the trailer's rear impact guard (ICC bar), the wheel-locking restraint can secure low-riding vehicles without the guards.

"Increasingly," says Kozelek, "we are seeing more trailers with either liftgates or very low trailer bed heights."

Two other docks have restraints of a similar design that block wheels and hold trailers in place. And the remaining 16 dock positions have restraints that work by grabbing the vehicle's rear impact guard.

"We've seen the accidents that other companies have had when trailers aren't properly restrained," says Kozelek. "By being as safety conscious as we are, we feel we've virtually guaranteed our employees' safety on the loading dock. It makes sense for our employees and it makes sense for the company financially."

Ace Hardware goes for safety, versatility

When building its $35 million, 800,000 sq ft retail support center (RSC) in Loxley, Ala., Ace Hardware looked hard at what kinds of dock systems to install. The RSC has 80 dock positions. In particular, Ace wanted hydraulic dock levelers, rather than manual models, because of their greater versatility and safety.

"Because we are committed to maintaining high productivity," says Dirk DeYoung, senior project manager, "we needed a system that requires less manual operation."

The hydraulic leveler selected (Serco, www.sercocompany.com) requires less maintenance and is more efficient. It also has unique powered in/powered out lip control and quick lip extend features. "The shear speed of this leveler and the ability to control it when the lip extends were deciding factors," DeYoung adds.

Ace also selected retractable vehicle restraints (Serco) for this new facility to further enhance the safety of its operations. The model used at 42 of the 80 dock positions has a low profile, and, when retracted, does not obstruct the dock face. Dock positions with this restraint can be used to service and secure a trailer with a rear impact guard.

"We feel there is less risk of a pullaway accident when the restraint is engaged," says DeYoung. And because the restraint is completely hidden when retracted, "the dock is more versatile," he adds.

Ace also is creating one all purpose dock position. It has a hydraulic leveler (Serco) designed to accommodate lower and wider trailers as well as conventional trailers at the same dock position. Side bumpers lower in tandem with the leveler, providing a full 9 feet of loading width.