Getting the stock you need has become more important than ever. People don’t just have the attention span of goldfish — they also want to receive a product within a day or two.
Unfortunately, moving faster isn’t always better. Your employees have a higher chance of rushing and having a safety incident or injury, and drivers who do drop-offs are also under time pressure.
How can you ensure that there are safe deliveries at your facility, even as you need more efficiency than ever? Here are some tips you can use.
Be Aware of Common OSHA Violations For Warehouses
Many workers — and managers — roll their eyes at the mention of OSHA violations. However, we’re not talking about trying to enforce strict rules. Instead, we’re suggesting you use the list of common violations in a different way.
The common violations list shows you where people are most likely to cut corners, which can help you keep an eye on those areas to help improve safety. For example, forklifts are number one on the list, so you can be mindful of the fact that forklift operation is one of the danger areas in your facility.
Knowing which areas are likely to cause an incident can help you shore up training, improve oversight, and keep your facility safer.
Communicate Regularly With Drivers
Warehouses rely on drivers to deliver loads on time and efficiently. To keep everyone safe, ensure that you have clear and open communication with the drivers that serve your warehouse. That way, you can let them know if there’s a hazard, road closing, or another issue.
If you’re thinking, “Our drivers are spread out over a dozen carriers; there’s no way to do that!” then let me suggest using an app like Dock411. In just a few minutes, you can update your facility information to reflect a road closure, dock issue, or detour. That information is instantly shared with every driver using the app.
An app can make it easy to communicate with hundreds of drivers at once without making a single phone call. It’s a great way to save time and money while ensuring safety.
Review Your Dock Area Regularly
The loading dock is another very dangerous place in your facility. Even with perfect forklift usage, there’s the risk of product tipping over, dock edges going unnoticed, or dock plates giving way.
To make your loading dock safer, consider taking these steps:
- Use a traffic plan to keep docks from becoming chaotic, and be sure it is communicated to incoming drivers
- Keep the docks properly lit and ensure dock edges are clearly marked and easy to see
- Use guard rails as another way to indicate dock edges and discourage unsafe behavior
- Make sure dock plates are screwed down and test them for load tolerance regularly
By maintaining control over your dock area, you’ll reduce the hazards of delivery at your facility and keep everything running on schedule.
Keep Communication Clear With Dock411
One of the biggest challenges of keeping the delivery process safe is that you need to communicate with drivers frequently. That way they know if there are changes to the traffic plan, hazards, or external incidents that affect how they approach your facility.
We want to make it easy for everyone to use Dock411 to communicate with drivers. By claiming your facility, you can input detailed information about your warehouses. This makes your loads more appealing and keeps everyone safer.
If you haven’t entered your facility information into Dock411 yet, it’s time to get started! Claim your facility today.
