Unloading and Loading Trucks Wastes Time and Money Without Proper Dock Equipment

Save Money and Time With Proper Dock Equipment

Are you finding that your man hours are being spent loading and unloading trucks using carts and dollies? Moving inventory with carts and dollies using a ramp can be good for small businesses and small operations dealing with very few shipments and light inventory. When your operation grows and your shipments are heavy, it might be time to consider outfitting your dock with proper dock equipment including levelers or lifts, door seals, and bumpers. Installing this equipment will make your operation safer, more effective, and more productive as it allows one employee to unload pallet shipments with little strain on the employee or ramp.

Dock Levelers

Dock levelers are one of the many products needed to efficiently and safely use a loading dock. Dock levelers are used to adjust height differences between a dock and a truck. It is not unusual for a truck to arrive with a shipment to find that the dock itself is lower or higher than the truck’s bed. If a site receives shipments frequently, it is advised that they invest in a dock leveler rather than relying on yard ramps. Yard ramps generally support less capacity and increases risk of injury. There are different types of dock levelers, hydraulic, air-powered, and mechanical levelers. Hydraulic dock levelers are fully automatic and are operated by a hydraulic lifting system and hydraulic lip. Air powered dock levelers are semi-automatic and are operated by an air bag lifting mechanism and mechanical lip. Hydraulic dock levelers also act as a dock ramp allowing fork trucks and hand trucks to go from truck to dock. Dock levelers are one of many pieces of equipment needed for a new loading dock area to be efficient and safe. Other products that you may need will include barricades, bumpers, door seals, wheel chocks, and dock lights as well as dock lifts, which we will be discussing in the next few paragraphs.

Dock Lifts

Dock lifts are scissor dock levelers with a platform designed to load and unload semi-trailers and trucks. Besides being used to move heavy cargo from or to a truck, dock lifts or scissor lifts are used to raise workers. Scissor lifts are generally made to handle capacities up to about 20,000 pounds, so groups of workers would be able to be lifted. Carts and trucks can also move across dock lifts very easily, making it a quick and effective way to unload almost any product safely and with less concern of damaging the product. Alternatively, businesses that do not use dock equipment spend hours and hours on labor for workers to pass boxes along to one another or load it off of the truck and onto a cart or hand truck to be brought inside the building. This system is time consuming and risks the product getting damaged on more than one occasion and wastes employee productivity, making it less than profitable down the line. Any type of lifting equipment for your site is to facilitate the speed of your operation as well as lessening the strain of lifting and unloading on your employees. Proper dock equipment and lifting equipment makes operations run smoother and in turn more productive and profitable. Bode Equipment Company offers a large selection of dock equipment and can do the installation for your operation as well as servicing the equipment or offering preventative maintenance when needed or desired. Bode offers a turnkey solution by offering not only a wide range of products, but by installing and servicing those products as well.