Loading bays and HGV docking stations should always have dock bumpers and trailer plates installed. All it takes is one small mistake to cause a significant amount of damage to either your building, or the vehicle, and damage to either can be costly to fix.
Loading and unloading are not always straightforward, while it takes a great deal of skill to carefully manoeuvre a HGV and back it up into exactly the right spot. Proper loading bay protection, such as dock bumpers, dock fenders and trailer plates afford you not only peace of mind, especially when it’s not you behind the wheel, but also reliable, proven protection.
What to look for in Dock Bumpers and Loading Bay Protection
Effective dock bumpers should be able to absorb the force of the impact that docking produces, over the years, repeated docking can cause strain on the bumpers, so when selecting the dock bumpers you need to be sure they’re up to the task, they must be durable, with exceptional toughness and high impact strength.
Selecting the right dock bumpers and loading bay protection will increase the efficiency and performance of operations when docking at distribution facilities and warehouses. The extra layer of protection they provide allows the drivers to dock with greater peace of mind, but what should you look for when it comes to docking solutions?
Ideally, your dock bumpers should have the following attributes:
- Excellent durability
- Resistance to wear and abrasion
- High visibility
- Corrosion resistance
Dock bumpers and trailer plates with these attributes will offer excellent protection to your vehicles, loading bays and yards, but they will also drastically reduce maintenance and replacement costs.
Rubber v Cast Nylon
When trailers dock, there will inevitably be contact between the vehicle and the dock bumpers, this abrasion can wear your bumpers down over time, with rubber bumpers particularly affected by this, cast nylon bumpers, however, are much more wear and abrasion-resistant.
Typically, you’ll find that dock bumpers are black, which seems fine until you think about it. Bright colours are far better suited, due to their increased visibility drivers will be able to better judge the correct spot to back up into, even in poor weather conditions, in low light, and with bad visibility.
Loading bays are generally exposed to the elements year-round, and in Great Britain, that means you’re virtually guaranteed to have your loading bay protection be subjected to some harsh weather conditions. For this reason, your dock bumpers should be corrosion resistant, allowing them to withstand the rigours of the great British weather, without negatively impacting their performance. A rubber bumper is liable to fade in the sunlight, while becoming brittle and cracking in the colder weather, cast nylon does not.
While both rubber bumpers and cast nylon bumpers are easy to install, that is where the comparison should end. The following can only be attributed to cast nylon bumpers:
- Highly durable
- Maintenance-free
- Rotatable and reversible to increase the lifespan
- Extremely hard-wearing and scuff resistant
- Highly visible
- Long service life
- Resistance to chemicals and corrosion
Extra Protection
What other products are there which can afford you greater convenience and increased protection? Ground guards and levelling plates are designed to prevent damage to the surface of the ground. Over the years, the trailers feet will cause a significant amount of damage to the surface of the ground, in turn, this damaged and uneven ground can affect the stability of the trailers, potentially creating problems during loading and unloading.
Ground guards and levelling plates are manufactured from premium, impact modified cast thermoplastic, and are fitted to ground surfaces, damaged or not, and will eliminate the maintenance and costs associated with ground resurfacing. This extremely tough and stable footing will also prevent trailer creep, and eliminate inconvenient and occasionally dangerous rocking during loading and unloading.
Why Choose Cast Nylon?
Cast nylon holds all the advantages over rubber when it comes to being an effective material to create docking solutions from.
Companies such as Nylacast have perfected the art of producing Nylon Docking Solutions, with a range of innovative HGV docking solutions manufactured from premium, impact modified cast thermoplastic.
View their Buffalo range of dynamic and durable docking solutions here: Docking Solutions – Long Lasting Docking Bumpers
