With a cold load, the gap between a dock and a vehicle floor is a temperature question: a mismatch makes the pallet truck crossing harder, lengthens loading and keeps the door open longer.
How much difference a leveller can cover is limited by slope. EN 1398 allows at most a 12.5 per cent slope on a dock leveller, which is 125 mm of height for every metre of leveller length. On that basis a 2.5-metre leveller covers about 310 mm at that limit. Where vans and articulated trailers use the same door, one height may not serve both; Hörmann advises planning separate loading points in that case.
- Measure the floor height of each arriving vehicle type, loaded and empty, and list them.
- Record loading time by vehicle type for a week.
- Set the dock height as close as possible to the floor of the most frequent type, and size the leveller from the remaining difference.
- Send the type that does not fit to another door or appointment slot; price an adjustable leveller once the measurements justify it.
Where the difference cannot be closed, the time product spends exposed can still be cut. The load waits and travels closed in insulated containers, pallets are not brought to the door before the vehicle is on the dock, and paperwork runs separately from loading.
