How Poor Dock Leveler Maintenance Can Lead to Injury

Your warehouse is an important part of your business and can be the cornerstone to running a successful operation. In an ideal world, your warehouse operations run both efficiently and safely, especially at the loading dock. By combining the right equipment with regular dock leveler maintenance, you can reduce the potential for dock leveler injuries and increase loading dock safety.

Selecting the Appropriate Dock Leveler Equipment

The first step in creating a safe loading dock environment is to make sure the right dock leveler equipment is being used. While specifying the most advanced model available is ideal, it’s even more important to find the equipment that best suits your daily operations. Take into consideration the types of trucks that pickup and deliver to your warehouse as well as the daily traffic in and out of your facility when selecting your dock levelers. When possible, look for equipment that can be fitted with additional safety features in the future, like multisensory hazard recognition systems.

Regular Dock Leveler Maintenance is the Key to Safety at the Dock

Dock leveler maintenance is the second step in creating the safest environment possible and reducing loading dock injuries. Because equipment can take a beating during normal loading dock operations, make sure to have a planned maintenance program to keep your dock levelers in proper working order. Facilities that do are helping ensure the safety of their employees and products.
Take it from us; neglecting dock leveler maintenance is expensive – and risky. If you’ve spent much time on a loading dock, you’ve probably seen a serious accident. And you’ve most likely seen people perform unsafe practices with dock levelers when their equipment isn’t functioning properly in order to “get the job done”. 

Common Causes of Dock Leveler Injuries Due to Poor Dock Leveler Maintenance

• Walking down a ramp with a fork truck
• “Playing chicken” – one worker holding up the leveler lip while another walks the board down
• Using a piece of plywood or boiler plate to cover the gap between the truck and dock when the leveler lip won’t extend. Or worse, driving a fork truck over the gap after getting a “running start.”
• Using a leveler after a major structural problem has developed.

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