A Better, Safer Dock

A Better, Safer Dock

Citrus Systems, a busy, growing operation, which makes private-label fruit drinks and other items for the dairy, grocery, and food-service trades, faced a serious problem: the dock levelers were terrible. The levelers were the old pull-chain style units, with a welded plate in front and a fold-down lip, which created a hump that lift trucks had to drive over. Each day, the drivers were driving over that lip many times, causing sore backs for the operators and extra wear on the lift trucks. There were other issues, too. All the bumping and jostling caused the shrink-wrap on the top layers of the loads to stretch, especially on the taller loads. That lessened the loads' stability and made them more vulnerable to damage in transit. Furthermore, truck restraints couldn't be mounted on two of the docks, so two out of the four docks had nothing but wheel chocks to restrain trailers.

In 2013, Citrus Systems moved out of the old warehouse space to a new location nearby. Determined not to carry over the problems from the old facility into the new one, Citrus Systems decided it was time to invest in new dock equipment—with an eye toward enhancing safety. After a trip to Wisconsin to check out the offerings of different dock-equipment makers, the company purchased equipment from Rite-Hite to fit out the nine dock doors in its new facility. The equipment included Rite-Hite Hydraulic 4000 levelers with Dok-Commander controls, Corner-Vu safety lights, and Dok-Lok vehicle restraints. The results have been significant. The new dock equipment has improved safety, boosted productivity, and saved money on maintenance.

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