The transport sector has experienced tremendous growth over recent times, with online retailing and home deliveries a key factor. From retail to food, DIY to home furnishings, there are few industries that haven’t struggled to keep up with demand from consumers and distributors alike.
As thousands of new logistics drivers and packers take up newly created roles in the sector, it’s more important than ever for employers to understand the challenges involved in safe loading and unloading. Even more crucially, they must also know what they are going to do about them.
Here’s our top five loading and unloading challenges to think about…
integrating technology to drive more efficient ways of working
The industry is changing and can no longer sustain labour-intensive, manual administration administrative processes. Innovation in distribution technology and systems is making life more efficient for companies and drivers alike, creating a better service and importantly, getting goods where they need to be quick. From platooning and intelligent route design, through to drone deliveries and real-time inventory management systems; the sector has never been better placed to automate.
When it comes to loading and unloading, technology is being used to ensure conveyor lines support the secure and timely loading and unloading of trucks in increasingly sustainable and energy-efficient ways.
health and safety training
As new workers familiarise themselves with life in the transport and warehousing sectors, thorough training to load and unload safety is essential. Operatives need to be aware of the common mistakes that can cause inefficiencies in the loading and unloading process and how these can be avoided, such as maximising the loading space and ensuring ergonomic movements.
Training should be given on lifting techniques and on maximum lift limits when working independently without equipment. Operatives also need to be aware of any warehouse travel strategies designed to minimise the amount of time spent travelling through the warehouse and as a result, being readily available for loading or unloading activity
using software to aid better load planning
Technology is increasingly available to help ensure maximum efficiency in loading and unloading through load testing and monitoring systems. Based on the capacity available and the load involved, load testing software can quickly build a load plan that minimises potential product damage because of poor packing.
having a multi-dock view
It can be challenging to ensure complete oversight when multiple loading docks are being utilised at the same time as a supervisor can only be in one place at any one time. Dock management systems, integrated with CCTV or sensors, can give a single view of activity and allow loading and unloading practices to be observed and corrected where necessary. It can also ensure loading plans are being followed and any inefficiencies dealt with prior to transport.
investing in docking infrastructure
With advances in technology and equipment to support more efficient ways of working, many companies will need to start thinking about how to upgrade legacy and outdated loading and unloading systems to benefit from these. This could include things like extendable or telescopic loading belts to simplify the transportation of goods around a warehouse space, safety features like traffic light systems and wheel guides and exploring where automation can replace manual processes such as pallet wrapping.
The growth of online shopping and the move toward just-in-time delivery have put additional strain on logistics companies and distribution centres. As a result, speedy and efficient loading and unloading are more important than ever. The industry is playing catch up as well as trying to meet today’s demand (particularly after the surge in demand brought about from COVID-19) so there’s never been a better time to invest in a strategy to boost loading and unloading efficiency.
Fifteen Essential Truck Loading Tips
Load a truck or trailer incorrectly and you could cause an accident. It’s a responsible job, and you can’t just load a truck any way that suits you. You have to consider how the weight of the load might affect the vehicle once it’s in transit, plus several other factors so that you do so safely.
In our article, Fifteen Essential Truck Loading Tips, we provide you with a series of tips to help you transfer your cargo to your truck or trailer appropriately. Before going into the tips themselves, though, we discuss some fundamental terms that, if you’re responsible for loading a truck or trailer, you should know.
save time, money and resource...
By ultilising the latest digital and engineering technologies in a combined, automated loading system can be a cost-effective and efficient way of saving your business time, money and resource...
Consider this, with an automated loading system, you can help your business to overcome the loading and unloading challenges listed above. With an automated loading system, you can integrate loading technology solutions into your business seamlessly to reduce (or even irradicate) the need for forklift trucks (including fuel and maintenance), labour and potentially costly negligence claims that derive from accidents.
An automated loading solution can, at the press of a button, load a full trailer in a matter of minutes. We have three automated loading solutions, the trailer skate, the slipchain and the moving floor solution and as loading experts, we can fully assess your needs to help specify and tailor a solution that's exactly right for your requirements...
request your FREE loading assessment today!
We'll call to arrange a convenient time and date to visit your site. We'll analyse your logistics operations, assessing how goods/pallets are loaded and unloaded. Our design experts will work out how best to safely, efficiently and transport loads from the end of production lines into trailers. Next, we'll design you a comprehensive loading solution that can streamline your logistics processes and send this you to via email.
We'll do all this to ensure we fully understand your product loading and unloading requirements and help lighten your load!
This is an amazing service we do for thousands of businesses throughout the world every year and why we're known as the global leaders in loading and unloading solutions. We work with such a wide variety of industries, including automotive, beverage, air cargo, contract logistics, FMCG, packaging paper and print, petrochemical, and many more...
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To find out more about the latest manual and automatic trailer loading installation projects we've been working on, check out our Case Studies section.
why choose us?
We help businesses lighten loads and are highly regarded as the world's leading loading and unloading solutions provider in the logistics industry. Over the last 60 years, we've helped thousands of businesses streamline their logistics operations to be more cost-efficient, more sustainable, and more health and safety-conscious.
As experts in all kinds of unloading and unloading solutions, we can help innovate, automate and streamline your end-of-production line problems, wherever you are. We work with a network of over 30 global distributors to provide you with comprehensive design, installation, maintenance, and certification services across a range of industry sectors. Learn more About Us today.
Get in touch with our experts today to learn how we can provide a safe working environment, call our friendly team on +44 (0) 151 427 8954, on our Let’s Chat page, via email on sales@joloda.com or on our LinkedIn page.
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