Loading bay equipment can be likened to pallet racking: both often receive scant maintenance and only attract attention when matters go wrong. This is curious because, according to Alan Jenkins, sales director of Hormann UK, “safety is the prime concern of most loading bay operators,” and when maintenance is ignored accidents can happen. He also believes that most loading bay operators have a poor maintenance regime and so wait until something breaks. It seems to be a peculiarly British problem because Hormann’s European partners are ready to accept maintenance costs as part of their budget. Even having a regular maintenance scheme in place, however, may not always be efficacious. It is a fact, for example, that loading bay operators who use outside maintenance engineers who do not work for the OEM supplier or have not been trained by them, may sometimes get a sub par service.
To counter this, loading bay operators should only use the OEMs’ approved service providers on their lists and leading equipments suppliers will gladly send such lists to end users. Alternatively, firms like Hormann will train the end user maintenance personnel to ensure its products are maintained to its recommendations. As Mr Jenkins explains: “The real problem lies when a service provider tells the end user that he is competent in dealing with a particular manufacturer’s products and when a fault occurs that the service provider cannot overcome, they generally tell the end user that it is the manufacturer’s faulty equipment.”
While safety may seem the prime concern of loading bay operators, the fact is such areas attract more than their fair share of accidents. Equipment suppliers have spawned many devices to minimise the risks, but good training remains the best defence. Here again, leading OEMs like Hormann place great emphasis on training the end users’ loading bay operatives, not only in how to use the equipment but, just as importantly, the correct and safe method of loading and unloading trucks and trailers.
Accidents on the loading bay take many forms but forklift drivers and lorry shunters take ‘pride’ of place. Forklift drivers crash into doors and racking (often travelling too fast) while shunter drivers reverse into the loading bays too quickly, causing damage to dock buffers, building fabric and trailers. Premature lorry departure from the dock is a key concern along with staff falling through open doors. A host of devices have been developed to warn and prevent premature lorry departure and should be seriously considered in very large, busy environments.
At the equipment quotation stage, operators should ensure that the equipment’s safety features are cost effective. They should look for ease of maintenance and availability of spare parts. All of the equipment offered should conform with all the latest EU standards and legislation and that the products are correctly CE marked, which becomes statutory from this July.
If safety is the prime concern of operatives then energy concerns cannot be far behind. In particular, Alan Jenkins has noticed a trend among architects and specifiers to specify improved insulation values for industrial doors expressed as a ‘U’ value. This is largely driven by Government environmental legislation and retail groups expressing their ‘green’ credentials. At one time energy-saving doors were confined to the fast-acting PVC roller doors, but more recently the same principle was applied to insulated sectional doors. These are more costly but not only do they cut energy losses more effectively they can also replace a two- door solution because they are secure enough to act as an external security door.
If location, location, location governs housing values overwhelmingly then training, training, training, backed by the most suitable hardware, should be the mantra to achieve the best, safest loading bays.
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