wise, a green light outside the building notifies
the driver that it’s safe to start the truck.
Of course, the lights won’t have much effect if
they’re blocked, which happens more often than
you might expect. To avoid this, Swietlik recommends placing lights in multiple locations—i.e.,
not just on the corners of the dock door but also
on the sides of the dock leveler.
Consultant Dave Piasecki offers a further suggestion for preventing unexpected departures.
He advises DCs to prohibit drivers from getting
back into the truck until all loading and unloading is completed.
MIND THE GAP
Another source of unexpected trailer movement is
the phenomenon known as “dock walk” or “trailer
creep.” Dock walk occurs when the force exerted
by a lift truck entering or leaving the trailer propels
the truck away from the dock, creating a gap
between the vehicle and dock leveler.
To prevent dock walk, companies should, at a
minimum, use wheel chocks and if the trailer is
not connected to the cab, a trailer jack stand, says
Swietlik. But wheel chocks are prone to slippage,
particularly in icy or snowy conditions. For that
reason, most experts recommend using some
type of vehicle restraint.
Vehicle restraints come in two varieties: those
that attach to the rear bumper/rear impact guard
(or ICC bar) and those that attach to the wheel.
Rear-impact guard restraints are the most popular and least expensive, says Steve Sprunger, senior vice president of sales and marketing for
dock equipment maker 4Front Engineered
Solutions. But these types of restraints have their
limitations, Swietlik says. For instance, they may
not work with trucks with hydraulic tailgates or
lift gates, or trailers with damaged bumpers.
With wheel restraints, there’s no such prob-
lem. “A wheel restraint works on all vehicles
because all vehicles have wheels,” says Jay Jette,
president of GMR Safety Inc., which makes the
devices. “Where there’s a wheel, there’s a way.”
Both types of restraints are available in auto-
matic or manual models. Manual devices are
generally cheaper, but automatic versions offer
the added advantage of stabilizing the trailer.
That’s a particular plus with trailers equipped
with air-ride suspensions, which have a tenden-
cy to jiggle when forklifts enter the vehicle.
