Safe Highways Start at the Loading Dock - Highways Today
Enhance your understanding of Loading Dock Safety to prevent accidents before trucks hit the road. Explore key safety practices now.
The trucking industry is responsible for moving roughly 72 percent of all freight in the United States, which means the majority of consumer goods, food, construction materials, and retail products reach the public via a tractor-trailer traveling on highways.
A large majority of those trailers begin their journey at a warehouse, making the loading dock the last point of contact before highway travel.
Yet surprisingly few road-safety conversations acknowledge that many incidents on the road originate before a truck even leaves the parking lot. Shifting cargo, improper axle loading, and overlooked trailer damage can result in major highway crashes dozens, or even hundreds, of miles after the root cause occurred.
At their core, loading docks are mostly designed for speed, efficiency, and throughput.
An efficient supply chain requires that trucks be unloaded and reloaded quickly to keep freight on schedule for both the drivers and the warehouse. That pressure can lead to corner-cutting, rushed checks, or maintenance that simply gets postponed “just a little longer.”