Trailer collapse is among the more devastating accidents that can occur in the loading dock. A collapse can happen for several reasons, but the most common involves an ordinary, aging trailer that is spotted in its dock position. Weather, the stress of heavy cargoes, and sheer number of miles on the road, take a toll on the trailer’s landing gear, weakening it to the point that the force generated by the back-and-forth motion of a forklift loading or offloading within, causes the landing gear to fail, and the trailer to fall.
For forklift drivers and dockworkers nearby, a trailer collapse is a life-threatening event as 80,000 lbs of trailer tumbles. And, while worker safety is the primary concern, a trailer collapse also throws a wrench into the supply chain. If you’re lucky, just one trailer falls, but in a tightly packed dock, a domino effect can cause nearby trailers to fall. Each collapse will take out a dock position for anywhere from a few hours to a few days. And a closed dock has been estimated to cost a business in the neighbourhood of $2000… per hour.
A trailer stand is a simple, cost-effective solution to what can be a scary and expensive problem. Positioned under the trailer’s nose, a trailer stand offers extra support and protection against trailer collapse.
Meet the Trailer Stand Family
The innovations team at Ideal Warehouse innovations, leaders in trailer collapse prevention, have created a lineup of trailer stand and trailer support options to meet the specific needs of almost any dock environment.
Our best-selling AutoStand Plus is a simple, ergonomic solution that is easily wheeled into/out of position and adjusts its height with the pull of a lever. The AutoStand Wide, with its easy to position stepped design, offers a wider contact area, minimizing risk from side-to-side rocking action. And, all our stands, even our two-post trailer stand – the simplest solution in our lineup, best for low-traffic docks – are performance tested by dropping an verloaded 100,000 lb trailer onto the stand from 6” above.
No Boots on the Ground®
While trailer stands solve a big and costly problem, they have typically required a worker in the yard to manually place and retrieve the stand. In a busy dock, with trailers coming and going and backing into sardine-tight dock positions, there is risk created for the yard worker. Taking safety to another level, our innovations team was challenged by a customer who had experienced a devastating accident in their dock approach. They wanted to implement a “no foot traffic” policy in the outer loading dock area. But they wanted to avoid giving up on protection from trailer stands.
This was the inspiration for our No Boots on the Ground® product solutions. In our trailer stand family, we now offer products that can be deployed and retrieved without setting foot on the tarmac! Our two Shuntable Trailer Stands are easily positioned by the yard jockey (or shunt truck) and offer extra-wide support. The Shuntable options have been shown in real-world environments to increase dock efficiency (over manually deployed options). And our new ready-for-the-automated-dock-of-the-future Ground Mounted Trailer Support (GMTS), is the easiest of all solutions. Permanently positioned like a low-profile speed bump, with the push of a button from inside the dock, the GMTS rises up to support the parked trailer.
In our business, innovations save lives. We are proud to lead the industry with innovative trailer collapse prevention products.
For more information, please visit idealwarehouse.com/prevent
