Loading Dock Seals & Shelters

Loading dock seals and loading dock shelters can be excellent improvements to your business’s loading dock area or receiving section. These useful installations can provide you with a more sealed receiving environment and make the loading or offloading of products more manageable in inclement weather.

Loading dock seals come in two primary types and act as insulation for your loading bay or trailer. Compression seals make a foam-filled seal around the top and sides of a trailer, while inflatable seals use air-inflated material to do the same. They can both conserve energy and lower your electricity bill in the process since they keep the temperature of your receiving bay stable even while you’re loading and unloading product.

Loading dock shelters extend around the trailer and receiving bay portal and can allow total access to any trailer interior while protecting its inside from weather effects such as rain, snow, or hail. These shelters are also another excellent way to add energy efficiency to your loading dock operations.

Types of Loading Dock Seals & Shelters

There are different types of loading dock seals and shelters to choose from, depending on your setup and facility needs.

Compression Loading Dock Seals

Compression loading dock seals work by creating a foam-filled seal around the top and sides of the trailer, assisting with climate control and decreasing energy costs. Models come with either head pads or head curtains and come in a wide variety of fabrics.

Inflatable Loading Dock Seals & Dock Shelters

Inflatable loading dock seals and dock shelters are an air-inflated option that helps to protect facility walls and tighten up the contact area around the trailer, assisting with climate control. Available in a variety of styles.

Loading Dock Shelters

Loading dock shelters allow for complete access to the trailer interior while, at the same time, providing protection from climate conditions such as rain, wind, snow, and debris.

Each style will give extra protection while loading and unloading product, which in turn creates a more climate-controlled area.

The Benefits of Loading Dock Seals and Shelters

There are several key benefits that can be gained from installing loading dock seals and shelters.

Loading Dock Seal Benefits include:

Energy Conservation: Loading dock seals will maintain an interior temperature at a more stable level thanks to their insulating effects and how tightly they grip around your facility’s walls. By forming a better seal around the truck trailer, you’ll conserve power and have to use less to heat or cool your receiving area.

Electricity Cost Lowering: Along the same vein, dock seals will allow you to lower your energy consumption and thus save money on your energy bill. This can be returned to the rest of your business or put into savings.

Employee Comfort Management: Comfortable employees are happy employees. Loading dock seals will maintain a more pleasant temperature for your workers, which will result in higher productivity, fewer complaints, and overall profit increases.

Protection of Facility Walls: Compression or inflatable loading dock seals can form protective barriers around the edge of your receiving area bay. This can guard your facility walls against minor damage incurred from a moving vehicle or unloading machinery.

Loading Dock Shelter Benefits include:

Unrestricted Access to Trailer or Warehouse Interior: Using these shelters can allow your workers to move freely from trailer to warehouse and back. Guiding the trailer to line up perfectly with your receiving bay dock may be easier with the guiding target of a loading dock shelter, as well.

Protection Against Inclement Weather: These shelters can defend your interior receiving bay from snow, rain, hail, debris, insects, or birds. This will protect your product and your employees while reducing the possibility of a large cleanup being necessary.

As you can see, loading dock seals and shelters provide many benefits. Benefits that make sense to invest in equipment that will help in so many ways.

Industries and Businesses Which Can Benefit from Loading Dock Seals and Shelters

Virtually every kind of business which loads and unloads products from a primary receiving bay can benefit from having loading dock seals or shelters installed.

Some of the businesses which benefit the most are:

Warehouses: Places that move a lot of products back and forth, such as warehouses, can benefit greatly from the protection of loading dock shelters and the climate-control assistance offered by loading dock seals. Warehouses are already difficult-enough to maintain at a reasonable temperature and often incur a high energy bill.

Factories: Factories oftentimes ship out large amounts of product and can benefit from using loading dock seals to maintain an internal temperature that is good for their product. They can also use shelters to assist their employees when loading product onto trucks or trailers for transport to vendor facilities.

Groceries: Groceries have many food products which require a consistent climate and can make good use of loading dock seals. Seals can prevent the temperature from fluctuating due to openings in the loading bay and can help to keep food products at their optimal temperature.

Ideal Uses for Loading Dock Seals and Shelters

There are a few main perks that loading dock seals and shelters are good for.

Climate Control: Maintaining internal temperature and lowering your overall energy consumption and energy bill is the primary benefit of loading dock seals. These can form a protective barrier around the loading dock and keep the air inside and at a stable temperature, even if it varies outside. This will lower overall costs, as well.

Employee Safety: Employees will be protected from harsh weather due to the shield provided by loading dock shelters. They can load or unload product onto a truck or trailer without dealing with weather elements like wind, rain, hail, or snow.

Product Protection: Product that is sensitive to either temperature variance or weather damage can be protected by both loading dock seals and shelters. The loading dock seals will keep it from getting too hot or cold, and loading dock shelters will ensure that it isn’t made wet during the loading or offloading process.

Summary

Loading dock seals and shelters work by sealing the top and sides of the trailer. There are multiple benefits to using a loading dock seal or shelter; they keep the inside of the trailer temperature-controlled and safe from the elements. Loading dock seals and shelters can be either foam-filled compression or air-filled inflatable.

Loading Docks and Shelters Improve Your Business

Investing in loading dock seals and shelters can save you money in the long run and protect your receiving bay. They can even help keep your workers or any products away from terrible weather. Best of all, they can be installed with a minimum of hassle.

Why wait? Contact Authority Dock and Door today, and let us help you choose the best loading dock seals and shelters for your needs.