Yard ramp or dock leveller: how to load a truck at a warehouse

The choice depends on whether the warehouse has a loading dock: a platform or opening at truck-bed height. If there is no dock and loading is from the ground, you need a mobile yard ramp: an inclined bridge up which the forklift drives into the truck body from the yard. If there is a dock or one is being built, a fixed dock leveller is fitted in the opening: it bridges the gap and the height difference between the warehouse floor and the truck bed. A ramp can be moved to another gate. A dock leveller stays in one place, but the forklift travels almost level.

Mobile yard ramp: a warehouse without a dock

A ramp is a steel bridge on wheels. One end rests on the ground, the other on the edge of the truck bed. The height of the upper end is adjusted to the truck, usually by hydraulics with a manual or electric pump. The forklift climbs the ramp and drives into the truck body.

When it is chosen:

• the warehouse has no dock and loading is from a paved yard;
• different trucks are loaded at different places in the yard;
• the warehouse is temporary or rented and a dock cannot be built.

What to look at:

• Capacity. It must cover the forklift together with its load, not just the load. Ask the plant what exactly is included in the stated figure.
• Gradient. The steeper the ramp, the harder the climb for the forklift and the more dangerous the descent. The gradient is given in the catalog. Compare it with what your forklift allows: this is written in its manual.
• Height range. The ramp must reach the floor of the lowest and the highest truck body that comes to you.
• Length. A long ramp gives a smaller gradient, but it needs more space in the yard.
• Deck. A grating deck gives grip in rain and snow.

Dock leveller: a warehouse with a dock

A dock leveller is built into the edge of the dock. The leveller plate rises and lowers, and a hinged lip lies on the truck floor. This closes the gap between the dock and the truck and the height difference: trucks come in different kinds, and the body sinks under load.

When it is chosen:

• the warehouse has a dock, or a dock is in the design;
• there are many trucks and loading happens every day at the same gates;
• a level and fast passage for the forklift is needed.

What to look at:

• Pit. The leveller is set in a pit in the concrete. Its size is set by the plant and it is cast in during construction. That is why the pit size belongs in the leveller's specifications, not in correspondence after delivery.
• Travel up and down. How far the leveller rises above the dock level and lowers below it. This is the range of truck bodies it works with.
• Capacity. As for the ramp: the forklift with its load.
• Drive. Hydraulic with an electric pump, or mechanical. Hydraulics need power at the gate.

For dock levellers there is a European safety standard, EN 1398. It covers the design, manufacture, installation, maintenance and testing of such platforms, over which people and forklifts travel between the truck body and the building. Lift tables and truck tail lifts are not included: tables have their own standard, EN 1570.

Ramp or leveller: a table

Lift table and tilter: a workstation at the line

If the load is not to be put into a truck but brought to a machine or between floors, a fixed lift table is fitted. It raises the workpiece to the height at which it is worked. In heavy versions this is already a goods lift between floors.

If a workpiece, a mold or a container must be turned over to be approached from the other side, a tilter is fitted. It is chosen by mass, size and angle of rotation: 90 or 180 degrees.

What to check before ordering

1. Whether there is a dock, its height and the condition of its edge.
2. Which trucks come: the height of the body floor of an empty and a loaded truck.
3. Which forklift: mass, load, permissible gradient, tire type.
4. The surface of the yard and the space for the ramp in the yard.
5. Power at the gate, if the drive is electric.
6. For a leveller, whether a pit can be made to the plant's size.

How we do it

• We select the ramp, leveller, table or tilter at the manufacturing plant for your trucks, forklift and dock. What we find, with the plant's specifications, we send before the order.
• Where the answer must come from the plant (what is included in the capacity, the permissible gradient, the pit size), we ask it and pass on its word.
• We inspect the lot at the plant before shipment: part number, dimensions, lot, packaging.