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How to Use Conveyors for Ergonomic Truck Loading and Unloading
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We recently discussed the various ways you can use conveyors to optimize the end of the line, which includes the ways they interface with trucks and trailers. The transition between the end of a conveyor system and the trucks where goods are loaded or unloaded are one of the areas where distribution centers can struggle. The traditional method has been to throw labor at the problem, but as we know in 2023, that is becoming a less useful and more difficult option.Get more news about portable truck loading conveyor,you can vist our website!
Extendable conveyors are the preferred method for trailer-warehouse transitions
Using extendable systems works very well by creating the transition you need between conveyor lines and docks. It’s constantly done in a variety of industries, particularly where the truck must be cubed out with cartons. Without an extendable conveyor, companies must manually remove cartons from the conveyor line and then move them afoot into the trailer, which is an extremely labor-intensive process with terrible ergonomics.
Most over-the-road truck trailers are 110 inches tall (internal), and 100 inches wide. Workers have two issues to contend with: first, that’s a lot of area to cover and most of it isn’t in the ergonomic golden zone between their knees and chest. Secondly, they are also expected to stack cartons in logical sequences that reduce product damage and facilitate unloading.
If you’re receiving carton-filled trailers, you’re doing the opposite–pulling cartons out of a stacked trailer and placing them on an extendable conveyor, the same issues exist in reverse.
Lower vs. higher volume
If you’re operating at lower volumes, manual methods may be adequate. Palletizing cartons, then moving them into or out of a trailer with a pallet jack can work well for LTL shipments in lower volumes. But if you’re shipping out significant volumes of cartons for retail or ecommerce distribution, that quickly becomes labor-intensive and slow.
Ergonomic, adjustable truck-loading conveyors let workers adapt to the task in two different, ways: First, they can elevate the worker vertically, which puts an end to the overhead reach problem. Secondly, its conveyor adjusts to match the height of the current layer of cartons to be stacked or unstacked. In both ways, it reduces the stresses and strains of dealing with scores of cartons in truck trailers.