Loading Dock Safety Barriers: What Warehouse Operators Should Know

If your facility has vacant loading docks, you've got a potential safety hazard.

Typical loading docks have a 4-foot drop-off, which can be dangerous to workers and equipment. This is not hypothetical: Forklift operators have been fatally injured by falls from loading docks, and it's difficult to overstate the hazard posed by an open dock door.

Of course, many bay doors remain closed when the dock is not in use — but not always. If your facility opens the loading doors on hot days to let in ambient air, or if you've ever kept the doors open while a truck backs into position, you're taking a risk.

The common-sense solution is to use a safety barrier to draw visibility to the fall hazard and protect workers (and lift trucks) from a catastrophic fall. In this article, we'll discuss relevant standards from OSHA and ANSI, then provide some tips for finding a solution that works for your facility.

What OSHA Says About Warehouse Safety Barriers

Warehouse safety barriers generally fall into two categories: Impact protection on the one hand, and fall/roll-off prevention on the other. Loading dock safety barriers fall into both categories. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to provide sufficient protection from falls, though the application of specific OSHA standards is disputed; by some interpretations, loading docks with a height lower than 48 inches are not subject to the provisions of OSHA 1910.29, which covers fall protection systems and protections.

But you certainly shouldn't rely on a technical interpretation of OSHA regulations when designing safety systems. If a worker falls from a 46-inch loading dock, they'll certainly suffer a major injury. You have a duty to prevent that injury.

The same is true of collision protection. A specific OSHA standard might not mention forklift collision prevention, rack guards around pallet racking, or separation of forklift traffic from pedestrian walkways. But the General Duty Clause of the OSH act requires employers to remove "recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm" to employees.

This rule makes warehouse traffic protection, including impact protection infrastructure like industrial safety barriers, essential for compliance. As an added bonus, minimal investments in pedestrian barriers or perimeter security posts can save considerable sums on vehicle damage (while costing a lot less than building walls from scratch).

And a quick review of other safety standards highlights the need for loading dock safety. Some relevant standards include:

• OSHA Standard 1910.22 Walking-Working Surfaces
• OSHA Standard 1910.176 Material Handling
• OSHA Standard 1910.178 Powered Industrial Trucks
• ANSI/ITSDF B56.1-2012 Safety Standard for Low Lift and High Lift Trucks
• ANSI/ASSE A1264.2-2012 Standard for the Provision of Slip Resistance on Walking/Working Surfaces

In another blog, we provided safety tips for operating lift trucks on and around dock ramps. That article focuses on workflow practices, and it’s a useful resource when building a hazard assessment strategy — but the simple fact is that if your dock doors are ever left open and unattended, you’ve got an opportunity to improve your processes. 

Other Dock Safety Tips

Preventing falls from dock edges isn't the only way to improve dock safety. Before we get to our advice on choosing dock-edge barriers, let's review some of the most important dock safety tips, according to OSHA and other experts.

1. After trailer arrival, secure truck trailers with trailer restraints before loading or unloading. OSHA standard 1910.178(k)(1) requires "the brakes of highway trucks" to "be set" and "wheel chocks placed under the rear wheels to prevent the trucks from rolling while they are boarded with powered industrial trucks." 

2. Ensure that dockboards have a high enough load capacity, and that they're anchored in place, before using them. Dock safety procedures include securing dockboards prior to traveling over them, but dockboards must also be rated for the weight of trucks and loads that you plan to use on them. This is all according to OSHA standard 1910.26. Be sure to include this information in any warehouse dock safety training programs at your workplace.

3. Keep all warehouse dock surfaces clean and dry. OSHA standard 1910.22 (1)(3) requires all walking and working surfaces to be "free of hazards such as sharp or protruding objects, loose boards, corrosion, leaks, spills, snow, and ice." That's especially important for docks, where warehouse injuries from falling are a serious risk.

This list is not exhaustive, but these tips are important for all loading docks. So are safety devices like dock-edge barriers.

Choosing Loading Dock Safety Barriers

Loading dock safety barriers can be relatively simple. The cheapest options use high-visibility fabric to warn operators of the potential danger and to protect individual workers from falls.

The disadvantage of fabric safety barriers is, of course, that they’re not strong enough to prevent a lift truck from falling from a dock (and depending on the design, they may not be strong enough to prevent some workers from falling).

Additionally, if a lift truck operator attempts to reverse into a truck, they won’t see the barrier — and they’ll roll right through it.

Ideally, your dock barrier should allow for air circulation while preventing falls for workers and equipment. At BHS, our solution is the Powered Dock Gate (PDG).

The Powered Dock Gate is designed to aid in OSHA compliance, but more importantly, it’s designed to stop 10,000 pounds of force at 4 miles per hour. That’s sufficient to stop a reversing forklift in its tracks.

Features of the PDG include:

• A high-visibility yellow finish to alert workers to open-dock hazards.
• All-steel construction with a reinforced structural channel.
• Quick operation via an electric motor and push-button control.
• Manually operated models are also available.

A single lift truck roll-off can have catastrophic consequences, endangering workers and creating an enormous liability for your facility. Powered Dock Gates are essential warehouse safety barriers that provide an efficient and ergonomic solution. 

To learn more, contact the BHS Sales Team at 1.800.BHS.9500 or view the Powered Dock Gate on our website.