Ep. #29: Preparing for Warm Weather and High Heat Challenges at the Loading Dock

This episode of Right from the Source. A district. manager for our bonnet. The sales and service arm of the Facility managers can prepare. Yeah, yeah. every summer. You're listening to right from the source, expert insights on safety, Productivity, energy savings, and environmental conditions. at the loading dock and inside your industrial or commercial facility. So for today's podcast, right from the source, we have Logan Mancheck.

The district sales manager for Arbon Equipment. Hi, Logan. Welcome to the to the show. Hi, Ken. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you bet. So first, Logan, uh your title and a little bit about your professional career with writing. Uh my name is Logan Manchek. I'm the district sales manager for Arbon Equipment. I've been in the industry and with Wright Height for ten years now.

I spent the first six of uh years of my career in the Green Bay market as a field service representative, and the last four years as District sales manager for for Arbon, I support the majority of Wisconsin and the beautiful upper peninsula of Michigan. Outside of work. Any hobbies, passions? Uh funny you ask. It's a interesting day today. My my biggest hobby and biggest passion, my my two boys, I have twin boys that turned three today. So happy birthday boys and uh outside of work I

When I'm at work I like to feel like I have the loading dock Superman cape on and when I go home I put on the dad Superman cape. So they're they're what I spend my time outside of work doing and uh enjoy the heck of it.

That's a tough act to follow here, but we're gonna try and talk about today's topic, which is preparing for warm weather and high heat challenges at the loading dock. When it does start getting warmer outside, people tend to wanna be outside, especially if you're, you know, from Wisconsin or the you know upper peninsula. So things like opening up a window, fairly common.

And while most workers will enjoy that airflow and you know getting to feel like they're outside can also create some hazards for workers. So can you tell us a little bit about some of those hazards? Yeah, yeah, that's a good question, Ken. First to get into what an open door policy or open dock policy is is when a company or facility allows their employees or allows their people to open the dock doors when there's a trailer not present.

And when you open that dock door when there's a trailer not present, you not only open the door to air and everything coming in, which is great, it feels good, but you're opening the door to a lot of potential safety risks and safety. And in particular, the one that I'm referring to is the four-foot drop-off at the leading edge of the loading dock. Most loading docks are around four feet, give or take a couple inches, and there's a lot of traffic happening.

A lot of forecliffs zipping around, a lot of powered industrial trucks, and a lot of pedestrian traffic. And OSHA cites around a hundred thousand forecliff accidents per year. And out of those hundred thousand, seven thousand of those accidents. are typically a forklift falling off the face. And and we all know forklifts are Pretty pretty heavy. They could weigh as much as three SUVs. So if you could just picture three SUVs falling nose first off a four foot drop off.

It's not gonna be a good day for anyone. No, no, not a pretty picture. So are there ways that uh facility managers can prevent that from happening even if you do have an open dock door? No absolutely. Right height has a has a few compelling solutions to help address these concerns. Um the first one that comes to mind is our Doc Guardian product and we have a variety of size.

Configurations of the Doc Guardian. But it's it serves uh uh three main purposes. It's gonna protect your product, it's gonna protect your equipment that is behind the actual dock guardian and it's going to protect your most important most important asset, your people. And these dock guardians, they could take a beating. They're designed to take an impact up to 30,000 pounds and prevent those potential fatal accidents from happening.

In addition to the dock guardian, we also have a feature built into our loading dock levelers that helps address the And it's called our safety lip feature. And it's uh what it is is on the leading edge of the leveler, it actually creates a barrier that if challenged, it's designed to win and stop that forklift from falling off the face of the dock and having a catastrophic.

So addition to you know the the hazards of the fall off the potential fall off at the face of the loading dock that can occur when that door open door policy is in place. There's also the unwanted or unwelcomed visitors such as birds, pests, rodents that could come inside.

And it's never good when pests, rodents, bugs, birds are in our facility and we have some solutions to keep our feathered friends out. Right-eyed has a variety of bug door products that could seal up the opening as well as a right flex door lineup that incorporates louvered ventilated panels that could maintain security in the door opening while allowing that airflow to come through on those warm summer days when you just want

So uh transitioning a little bit into the outside of the loading dock, obviously there are some safety issues with that. Can you explain those? The the drive approach is a really hectic.

Quite frankly, there could be a lot of different people out there with a lot of different agendas in the driver approach. There could be a truck driver out there opening his doors. to back up his load for to either load or unload for that uh final ten feet to the loading dock. There can be someone delivering packages. There could be the loading dock guy there doing a dock survey.

There could be the loading dock service tech there doing some maintenance. And those folks don't realize the hazard that they're in in the busy hectic area. Referred to as the uh the drive approach. And really the accident or potential accident that we're that we're worried about is tractor trailer back. Um that's the most common back over accident roo cited by Yosha year old.

There's a few ways that Wright Height has developed some technology to alert folks about that these hazards. And to paint a picture of uh to you what what this hazard is, the tractor trailer is about fifty-three feet. You throw the cab on it, it's up to seventy five. And when these trailers back up, they're silent. They don't beep. They don't have an alarm. The engine is 75 feet from the rear of the trailer. You're not going to hear that pup.

So if you're standing behind that trailer while you're that package delivery guy, that loading dock guy, that employee out there, you're not going to hear And unfortunately a lot of the fatal accidents that happen on the driver approach are people that are crushed are pinned at the lowest. It's a really serious uh uh accident that Wright Height took to some innovative technology to alert folks on how to address it. And we have a path.

called approach view that utilizes audible alarms and a lighting sensor system to alert people around the area that there's a hazard nearby and they need to to clear the area. So the sensor is just picking up this large trailer, obviously with uh people being out there, you'd think that would be like easy to trip the alarm or something, but it it does a good job of focusing in on the trailer to identify that.

Correct, correct. The technology that we utilize is a sensor that's mounted over the loading dock shelter and it is Designed to pick up a mass. So if I'm if I'm walking through there, although I'm a little bigger fella, it's not gonna pick me up if I if I'm walking towards the dock. You need to have at least something the size of a golf.

So in addition to, you know, the the danger that's outside in the dock approach, we asked ourselves, why do people even need to be outside? Do people even need to be in the dock approach? And why are they in the dock approach? And we took you know su some reasons are verifying the trailer stands in place, verifying the dock lock is proper.

So what Right Height did, and this was to address our customers' needs, that we keep hearing this phrase of keeping boots off the ground. And you probably are wondering what does that mean? It's we don't want our employees out in the dryway. We want the boots in our facility, not on the ground. So keeping boots off the ground.

And WrightHeight developed a product called Lockview that incorporates two cameras. One that's going to mirror what's uh to verify the trailer stands in place and one to verify the dock lock is proper. And you could see a visual on that on the inside control box that also controls your dock leveler and your dock level.

From the comfort of your own home. From the comfort exactly. Exactly. So as the seasons change and we've got those warmer temperatures that employees are enjoying themselves. The problem with energy efficiency can definitely creep in, is it can as that open dock door, you've got air transferring in and out. So can you tell me a little bit about some of those energy efficiency?

And maybe some solutions to solve those problems? Yeah, before I answer that question, Ken, we're going to take a step back and paint a picture of what it is that we're talking about and look Envision your loading dock door as a eight by ten, nine by ten, ten by ten, what have you, hole in the wall. When that trailer backs up, you need something to seal the perimeter of it to separate the environments from inside.

We want to separate the good from the bad. In the good I'm referring to the conditioned air that you're paying for, or potentially the heated air. The bad I'm referring to the cold air outside, the warm air outside, the dust, the bugs, the dirt, the debris, all snow, rain, all that stuff we want to keep outside. So our environmental enclosures. The first segment is loading dock seals. And dock seals are comprised of a lumber or steel backer with industrial foam wrapped in fat.

And dock seals are gonna get a nice tight compression style seal around the back edge of the trailer. And doc seals are a great seal, but it does have its limitations from an application standpoint and from a trailer configuration. The other segment is loading dock shelters. And loading dock shelters have some more flexibility from a door-size standpoint. It could fit on larger door openings, and it works on a larger variety of trailers.

With that said, there's a couple key areas you want to focus on sealing up with loading dock shelf. Um the first of those areas is the trailer hinge. And the gap that I'm referring to The gap that when the trailer doors are swung open, and you have a half-inch gap from the floor of the trailer all the way to the roof of the trailer times two for one on both sides. So that half-inch gap.

times the height of the trailer times two is the equivalent of having a two and a half square foot hole in your facility. Bigger than you'd think. Bigger than you'd think. So sealing that up is pretty darn important for a lot of our customers. Imagine if you had 20 docs. That's 20 of those holes in your wallet. If you had a hundred docs, that's a lot of holes in your wall that we want to make.

And Wright Height has developed the technology to seal up that hinge gap so keeping the bat outside and keeping the battery. Uh another area you really want to focus on is the header, especially if you have a decline approach where the trailer is going to be leaning towards the build.

Rain can essentially act as a slip and slide coming into your facility. Could fall onto the loading dock plate, create a slip and slide and uh a a trip hazard, slip hazard inside the facility. So we utilize weight and gravity. To put a pressure on the top header of the trailer to divert out the water, rain, snow, and create a nice tight seal, keeping the bad stuff outside.

So Ken, I I I've talked about the three sides of the the trailer sealing it up the two sides and the top header. Now you've got to be one. There's gotta be four sides. What about the fourth side? Logan, tell me about the four sides, right? I'm wondering. Well, the fourth s thanks. I'm glad you I'm glad you were wondering about that, Ken. Well, the fourth side i is often overlooked, but it's one of the most important areas to seal up when you're talking about energy efficiency.

Wright Height has created a product called the Pitmaster, and there's a few versions of it that seals off the front side pit area of the dock level. It actually acts as creates an insulation barrier preventing that energy transfer through your loading dock plate. And it also prevents those critters and dust and dirt from getting and living underneath your loading dock, promoting some good industrial.

No, an another excellent solution from right height, getting all four sides. We're not shortchanging yet. So we've talked about some of those warm weather uh challenges from safety to energy efficiency that truly hot weather, the hundred, hundred ten degree days plus um that can occur in in some parts of the the country and the world are gonna really exacerbate those challenges. Can you talk about what some additional

super hot weather problems can arise that dock workers might experience? No yeah, absolutely. Put this in perspective maybe from from my home life. If if it's a hot day, ninety five hundred degrees outside and on my honeydew list is

uh cut the grass. It may take me an extra half hour, maybe a few more Gatorades to get the job done. Just because I'm gonna work a little slower because that heat's gonna really wear on me and I'm gonna go it's I'm not gonna be able to operate as productive as I would in in in more comfortable. Same thing goes inside these warm manufacturing facilities, these warm distribution. It really takes a toll on the employee when it's uncomfortable.

And believe it or not, there's a stat that shows that workers are two percent less productive. for every 1.8 degrees over 59 degrees Fahrenheit. So chew on that, digest that crazy stat for a little bit, but the brass tax of it is that when it's hot inside, people are not going to be as productive. So Right Height has developed a unique blade style fan, high volume, low speed fan to move a heck of a lot of air.

And with these fans, we're able to move more air, keeping employees cool and improving their comfort and ultimately improving their productivity. Another result of our high volume low speed fans, it addresses the phenomenon known as sweaty slash. And I'm sure you're wondering what that is, uh sweaty slab syndrome. That's actually a phenomenon that occurs when uh a certain climate exists and the concrete will actually condensate it.

So when we move air with our fan and circulate that around, it'll literally dry up those concerns of the slips and trips and falls that can occur with having uh condensation on a conversation. And awesome. Uh two two birds with one stone kind of situation with fans. Absolutely. Uh uh to throw uh one more bird into the mix there. Um it fans also do a good job of keeping birds out of the facility. That wasn't one of the talking points here.

Um but uh they do a good job at keeping birds out too. I know we talked about that in one of the opening points, but birds don't like spinning fans around. There's been a few uh of my customers and my time in Green Bay that have put in in high volume, low speed fans.

It's done a good job at keeping our feathered friends out. So and and one other thing, uh w one other point I'd like to make about our high volume, low speed fans is we always think about using them and when it's hot out. When it's hot out, you turn on the fan. But often it gets overlooked their value in the world.

If you have a facility that has high ceilings, a high a 30-foot, 40-foot peak, if you heat that facility and you're paying for that energy, that heat's gonna rise. It's gonna go So our goal with our high volume, low speed fans and what they do, if you run it at about 20%. It's going to de-stratify that warm air and bring it down to the ground, causing you to set your thermostat for your HVAC system at a much lower temperature, saving

Well, I think that covers our topic for today, but if there is anything else, Logan, that you feel like we missed regarding the hot weather, warm weather, and and any of those safety or energy efficiency challenges. Just wear your sunscreen. All right. No, that's always a good tip. So hey Logan, appreciate you being on the show here today and I'm sure our listeners got some really great uh tips from you. Yeah, thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.

Alright, well, you listeners out there, be sure to follow Right Height on all social media platforms. Visit RightHight.com for additional information or to connect with If you enjoyed this episode of Right from the Source, be sure to subscribe on your preferred listening platform and follow Right Height's social media channels. Want more supply chain logistics solutions for your facility?