With an increasing number of forward-thinking companies looking for ways to reduce product packaging and improve their carbon footprints, Ian Langan, Thorworld’s Technical and Engineering Director suggests why mobile pedestrian ramps are being cited as an answer to enhancing ‘green credentials’ in loading bays around the country.
In recent years, it’s become standard practice for many loading bays to use fork lift trucks to move and place shrink-wrapped pallets of goods into lorries for delivery.
It can be a great loading method, and work well for a lot of companies. However, for others it can present a health and safety hazard in the workplace, as well as generating additional waste – both in terms of packaging and volume within delivery vehicles.
It stands to reason that if a delivery truck is full, fewer trips to fulfil orders need to be made. Often though, when packing a vehicle using a fork lift, space inside a lorry’s container needs to be reserved for the fork lift to safely manoeuvre in and out. Also, the pallets used to protect products from the fork lift take up much more space than the items themselves, whilst the amount of shrink-wrap used to encase the pallet can be quite significant.
What we’re finding at Thorworld is where appropriate, companies looking to make their loading bays ‘leaner’ are increasingly having mobile pedestrian “Walkramps” assembled onsite.
These clever and flexible pieces of equipment provide safe pedestrian access to vehicles, offer a range of additional safety features and allow loading bay operatives to manually pack their delivery trucks so they can essentially ‘fit more in’ to each container. This means fewer road journeys, less fuel consumption, and a decrease in carbon emissions.
Furthermore, the considerable amount of shrink wrap plastic used to secure products to the pallet is no longer required as well as a reduction in the number of wooden pallets in need of disposal.
If it sounds like your company could reduce its emissions and packaging waste using a mobile pedestrian “Walkramp”, give Thorworld a call and we’ll see how we can help.
