Dock overhaul secures employees, trailers and productivity

Founded in 1991, New Belgium Brewing is the third-largest craft beer brewer in the nation and the eighth-largest brewery in the United States. The company currently sells beer in 33 states and produces more than 764,000 barrels of beer a year. After installing automatic vehicle restraints and hydraulic dock levelers, the company has created a safer, more efficient way to secure trailers at the loading dock while smoothing the transition between the loading dock floor and trailer beds.

The company currently operates a 205,000-square-foot brewery and packaging center in Fort Collins, Colo. The facility has 25 loading dock bays that receive a variety of materials on a daily basis including kegs, cans, bottles, corrugated cardboard and raw materials. New Belgium Brewing also operates a 180,000-square-foot distribution center in Fort Collins with 20 loading dock bays.

Before 2012, dock workers had been using wheel chocks to secure trailers at the loading dock. Bruce Clark, facility/project manager for New Belgium Brewing, says this labor-intensive and time-consuming process required manual chock placement and often resulted in improper chock positioning. Clark sought to eliminate the possibility of a trailer shifting during loading.

New rotating hook restraints (Rite-Hite, ritehite.com) have a wide vertical engagement range (9 to 30 inches), which helps to prevent trailer separation accidents including early departure, trailer tip-over, trailer pop-up, trailer up-ending and trailer creep. “We tried other automated vehicle restraints in the past, and they didn’t stand up to the daily wear and tear,” Clark says. “Once we transitioned to the new restraints, we had no issues. They’re bulletproof.”

Standard dock levelers had produced “dock shock” for forklift operators as they entered and exited trailers. Clark was also looking for a way to smooth out the transition to reduce wear and tear on employees, equipment and product. New levelers reduce dock shock by up to 76% when compared to standard levelers.

Additionally, the dock levelers installed at New Belgium are equipped with a slotted safety lip, creating a 7-inch high steel barrier once the leveler is in the stored position. This protects against vacant dock drop-off accidents, stopping a 10,000-pound load moving at 4 miles per hour.

“By adding these new levelers, we’re reducing the risk of injuries to our workers,” Clark said. “We’re also seeing increased productivity and reduced damage to our equipment and product, which is a huge plus.”