Welcome to Our "Dock-High Loading" Center of Excellence

This page contains the following:

1. What is Dock-High Loading?
2. Why is it Important?
3. What is involved?

What is Dock-High Loading?

There are 2 main loading types - dock-high and grade level - with a few variations of these. Grade-level buildings basically mean you can drive a vehicle into the building, normally for loading and unloading using a fort lift. Buildings often have a mix of grade-level and dock-high loading, normally with an emphasis (read more of...) on one or the other. Dock-High loading generally means that you back a semi-truck trailer up to a loading dock to load and unload those things you need loaded/unloaded. There are dock-high docks - normally 4 feet high. There are semi-docks - normally 2 feet high - normally for shorter haul trucking and delivery. Buildings with rail access would likely have a side-load dock built next to the rail. Grade-level buildings are generally built as ground-level, whereas dock-high buildings are often elevated by a few feet - up to 4 feet in many cases because that is the approximate height of most long-haul semi-trailers.

Why is Dock-High Loading Important?

Dock-high loading is all about the efficiency of moving cargo to and from trucks for transportation purposes.  In addition to this, it can be about extending the environment of the warehouse facility into the semi-trailer - where the trailer incorporates environmental controls as required by the product being transported - say, for cold storage, humidity control, cleanliness, etc. In these cases, the docking mechanism also involves an environmental seal. 

What are Some Things Involved in Dock-High Loading

We have a number of articles outlining many of the things involved. Again, these articles are summarized below, and include several definitional articles on Dock-High Loading, Dock Wells, Dock Levelers, etc. We encourage you to review these articles and visit the ones you believe would be useful to you: