Ep. #40: Make it a Drive-Thru with Vertical Storing Dock Levelers

This episode of Right from the Source features two guests, Walt Sweedlick, the director of Congress. And sales support for Right Hide, and Bob Young, a senior applications analyst. With more than 80 years worth of loading dock expertise, Walmart. Detail the advantages of vertical storing levelers and drive-through setups that can help benefit operations in any industry.

You're listening to right from the source, expert insights on safety, security, productivity, energy savings, and environmental control. Welcome listeners. We have a special podcast for you here today where we have two guests. Uh we've got Walt Sweetlick and Bob Young. Walt Bob welcome to the program. Thank you. Hi, Ken. Good to see you again. Yeah, absolutely. So today's topic is going to be uh drive-thru and vertical levelers. But before we get into that,

First, uh Walt a little bit about yourself, your title, uh how long you've been with Right Height. Okay, my name is Walt Sweetlick and I'm the director of customer relations and sales support at Right Height. Been there for just shy of 40 years. And uh I'm responsible for the customer visit program at right.

Awesome. And Bob? Bob Young. I've worked for Right Height for 43 years. I currently work in the Right Height Products Corporation, which is responsible for applying levelers and restraints. All right. So 80 plus years here of experience, folks. So what is uh what are some hobbies for you, Bob, outside of work? Hunting and fishing, if I have the time. Walt? I like to sail on Lake Michigan.

Play a little golf in the summertime and do some woodworking in the winter. So, with today's topic, we're going to be talking about, of course, uh one of Right height's namesakes here in the leveler at you know, at the right height. We're gonna be talking a little bit about the the dock lock, which is obviously a longtime legacy product, kinda helped make right height what it is today and a really fun topic with the drive-thru. And vertical leveling.

So the average Joe does probably hear the word drive-thru and kind of thinks of their favorite fast food restaurant. But that's what not what we're here to talk about today. We're going to be talking about drive-thru at the loading dock. So first off, can you briefly talk about what that is? A number of years ago n clients came to us with a concern about opening the rear doors of the trailer out in the yard.

concerns, safety concerns of people walking around out there getting run over by trailers. Concerns with truck drivers opening the trailer doors prematurely, maybe affecting the quality of the load and what have you. So the question was could we help design a dock? where a trailer with swing doors on the back could back into the dock and we could control the open and close of those doors from the inside of the building. Drive-thru. Back the trailer to the dock.

Swing the doors through the opening. into the building. So is this something that is used in a specific industry, this kind of setup? We've used this primarily in food and pharmaceutical industries. However We use them in automotive, we use them in packaging, we use them in high value cargo situations. Really anybody could use a vertical dock leveler in the drive-thru at

The salesmen that are really doing a sales job out there are selling this product now. I spend thirty percent of my day talking about vertical storing levelers and and the benefits. So you mentioned, you know, food industry. Are there other industries that are specifically looking for this kind of setup? It's across the board. Yeah, we're doing a big job uh here in Wisconsin right now for a paper company.

With over a hundred of'em because they like the sanitation benefits and they like the ability to control the trailer doors at the dock face. I'm flying out next week to a spice company that's got two hundred doors that are over. So specifically with the vertical leveler, how does that turn a what might just be a normal loading dock really into kind of that drive-through application? How does that all integrate? Bob and I have worked tirelessly for the last

fifteen years to perfect this installation or this application. It looks very easy, but there there's a whole the the devil is in the detail. The dock leveler storing vertically inside the building affords us some opportunities with these trailer doors that we just don't get with traditional pit style dock. better access to a level below the finished floor of the building to get these trailer doors.

Are there different trends with trailers or the kinds of trucks that are going to uh loading docks that might affect how the the leveler itself works? Are there different kinds of a vertical storing leveler that uh a company would have to consider? We're basically promoting a w the wider is better.

just because of the changes that occur on at these applications. So we're we're looking at a minimum of a seven foot wide leveler uh and we're but we're recommending an eight six, basically a hundred and two and What are some other I know that our focus today is on levelers, but are there other products at the loading dock that kind of make the the drive-thru setup uh reality in addition to the leveler? This gets back to our earlier point about the devils and the

So we have to be very specific on the overhead door or dock doors. Uh We need a much wider door than we normally use, 10 foot wide as a minimum. We need a much taller overhead door, typically at least 11.5 or 12 feet tall. With a larger door open. Course comes a different style of dock enclosure, something that really affords proper access to the back of the trailer. So we're more in that shelter category of dock enclosure.

And because of the the the dimensions and the what have you that we're dealing with, it's usually a hybrid Typically from an applications department we create a drawing, we call it a DAC proposal. And everything is drawn out, the level or the restraint, the door opening, the seal of the shelter, and that's presented to the customer for approval before we move forward. Like Walt said, there's a lot of detail. With a vertical leveler, do you need to have a different kind of loading dock?

Underneath right near the the loading dock opening. Can you talk a little bit about that that space or or how that setup looks? We're gonna do a couple things a little bit different. First of all, the recess or the pit that the dock left. folds down into or or uh drops down into, it's gonna be a little shallower than normal, usually only fifteen inches deep.

for this stock leveler versus a traditional 20 or 24 inch deep pit. But more noticeable and a much bigger difference and the difference the client really appreciates.

is that we're gonna have a continuous pit. So imagine if you will, along your entire dock face, we're gonna have a fifteen inch continuous step down, not only behind the dock leveler, but between the dock levelers as well. This affords Some really unique cleaning benefits that they just don't get with traditional dock layouts, as well as this tried. Now with this kind of setup too, the the loading dock door can close directly onto that recessed pit floor, yes? So it you're you're getting less

debris anything from coming in as well, right? And which kind of plays into the overall cleanliness standpoint. Closing the door to the bottom of the pit allows you to seal up that opening completely. So the so the environmental control is the big driver. The continuous wide pit, you don't have you know you don't have a section of s concrete between each pit, that allows for uh cleanliness.

Alright, so clearly cleanliness is a a huge benefit to having the the vertical storing leveler. What other kinds of advantages might a facility gain from having this unique leveler? One of the big things is Controlling access to the back door of the trailer. Uh we've all seen that plastic zip tie seal on the back trailer doors, but for many of our clients. Who breaks that seal when that seal is broken either in the receiving or shipping project?

Really, really critical to load integrity. So being able to control that from the inside of the building by the actual facility. is a is a complete game changer in the way the the the security of the load is handled. Probably more important in many cases than the lock itself. trailer. As we said, safety has always been a driver at right hype, but we think that this product takes safety For a docker tenant to go outside the building.

a proper vehicle restraint, the trailer backs in, lock the trailer from the inside of the building so we know it can't move. Then we'll open the building door, the overhead door on the building. Then the dock and tenant can go down and examine that seal, break that seal. Swing the trailer doors into the building and safely operate the leveler onto the floor of the trailer without ever leaving the building. That load is always Yeah.

No infiltration that can happen. That's great. So is there in in addition to environmental control, I imagine some energy efficiencies as well? Well y allowing the trailer to back into your seal and shelter, if you have a under level seal on the leveler itself, seals everything up almost airtight. Now We talked about some of the uh equipment that goes into it, but really if one of you could just sort of paint the picture of like an ideal

loading dock with the the the drive-through implemented, everything from making sure you've got the right, you know, seal shelter, the vertical leveler, the restraint. What what does that look like to you guys? Sure. So it's gonna look a little different than a traditional loading dock. On the outside of the building, we're gonna use a an automatic Vehicle restraints. So some type of push-button vehicle restraint may restrain the rear bump of the trailer or may restrain the tires of the trailer.

What the client is getting in. The dock enclosure will be a little bit larger dock enclosure, something in the shelter family, with typically with some type of rain protection built. We've pioneered a unique way to seal the bottom of the uh trailer or the bottom of the door opening. So as Bob said a minute ago, when that trailer backs into the dock. And when that overhead door is open, you won't see any white.

Coming in around the trailer, not across the top, not down the sides, or underneath the trailer, which is very, very important. As far as the dock leveler goes, we'll have a minimum seven-foot wide dock leveler by eight feet long. And in many cases, as Bob said, we're going to recommend an eight and a half foot wide dock leveler that's eight feet long.

In order to gain the efficiency benefits that many of our clients are looking for, we're gonna supply the uh the control station, which will include the controls for the dock leveler, the overhead door, the dock line. The dock light and whatever other accessories the client uh selects. There's uh uh a unique location for the control box. We've designed a very unique mast that meets many of our clever Cleanliness requirement as well as layout requirements.

And we'll also go as far as to uh supply the step to get down into the pit. So it's really a turnkey solution from right height in this case. I think we have uh the drive approach. We like to have a slight incline. I mean this gets a little more complicated. You want the water to run away from the dock, not towards the dock. That helps. That's a best practice across the board.

Uh overhead door center lines usually that's center line of one door to the next door. We like to shoot for fourteen feet. As a center line. That all helps us. That's all part of the picture. All that stuff is caught in that proposal that I talked about earlier. So with a a vertical leveler, obviously

Any kind of leveler, a a company is gonna want that smooth transition. With a vertical leveler, are you getting that same kind of smooth transition that you would with a pit style leveler, or are there some compromises that have to be made? Smooth transition is a signature feature on all right-height dock levelers. And so uh we're happy to report that we've been able to design the smooth rear hinge.

Smooth front hinge and the additional chamfer into the uh all the vertical back levelers that were So yes, you you will get the benefits of the smooth transition as well as the uh deck construction, the additional two beams under the deck and and all the signature features that come with the right height leveler, come with the right height. Now, can all of these pieces of equipment be added after construction? Say you've just taken over a facility, maybe you've your needs have changed.

all this doable kind of as a a retrofit post facto situation. Anything is possible. But uh You might need some dynamite in in some cases to uh to accomplish it. In some cases it will require some major surgery to the building, but in in many of those cases that surgery is justified based on the cargo coming in or going out. Yeah, for many of our clients, it's all about location, location, location. So if you got a building in the right spot that you're gonna be in for the next twenty

Certainly worth the investment. I think we see in the majority of a new construction, but if you have a free like a coal storage facility and they see the return on the investment, they would make the uh investment into demolition and and reconstruction.

So we have seen So if there is a a facility manager out there right now, an owner of a company saying to themselves, Boy, we do have that location, they're and but they need that drive through doc, they need this kind of set up they've got the perfect application or they just wanna make sure that they've got all that cleanliness, that security, that energy efficiency.

They want all those things. How do they go about getting it? They call you up, Walt? How does this work? They should definitely give us a call. And uh, you know, it doesn't cost anything to look. You know, we'll send somebody out and take a look at what they have. maybe take a few pictures, get some dimensions, and make some recommendations. We have the capability in most markets across North America to do these retrofits on a turnkey basis.

including the uh concrete work, the electrical work, whatever is necessary to uh implement this program on existing buildings. In some cases it just might And we'll let you know that obviously before we we that we start uh we start the journey. But uh in many cases it it it's certainly doable and we uh we

I think we agree that if you can get us involved early, get into a fly in, get us involved sooner versus later. Would you say that almost all facilities are trending towards this kind of drive through setup with vertical levelers? Certainly in specific in There's no doubt that food manufacturing for sure, food distribution, pharmaceuticals, we're seeing more interest in the beverage.

every day, especially on the distribution side. And then as I said earlier, some of these specialty industries, maybe a high value cargo or something like that, this really opens their eyes. Even automotive for saying it. Is there anything that uh that we missed that you might want to mention about either vertical levelers or drive thru? I think it's a very dynamic product. As we said earlier, the devil's in the details.

The good news is eighty years of experience here between the two of us, we've checked all the boxes, we've dotted all the eyes and crossed all And uh you should take advantage of the experience and uh and use Start with a fly in. Well, I think that's all we've got for today. So Walt, Bob, thank you so much for joining us.

And uh for you listeners out there, be sure to follow Right Height on all social media platforms. Visit right height dot com for additional information or to connect with a team member. Thanks again, Walt and Bob. Thanks a lot again. Great to see ya. 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? Visit right.com.