Reducing Forklift Damage When Operating on Dock Plates

Traveling over dock plates when loading and unloading trailers can take a toll on your forklifts. This can be especially true for powered pallet jacks where improper operation can cause damage to the bottom of the forks and other components as you travel over uneven surfaces.

Electric pallet jacks sit low to the ground when fully lowered to allow them to easily enter pallets. When traveling over uneven surfaces such as a dock plate, however, the best practice is to raise the forks to avoid damage to both the dock and the equipment.

While training operators to raise the forks is a good first step, utilizing a feature such as Toyota’s fork height travel interlock can help reinforce this behavior over time.

Fork height travel interlock is a standard feature on Toyota’s Electric Walkie Pallet Jack, Large Electric Walkie Pallet Jack, End-Controlled Rider Pallet Jack, and Center-Controlled Rider Pallet Jack. When turned on, this feature limits travel speed when the forks are fully lowered and permits full travel speed when the forks are raised to a certain height.

This function encourages operators to travel with the forks raised to help reduce the likelihood of damaging them when traveling over uneven surfaces such as dock plates. For customers that don’t operate on uneven surfaces such as dock plates, this feature can also be easily disabled.

To learn more about Toyota’s fork height travel interlock or other features designed to help you with reducing your repair costs and downtime, please reach out to your local, authorized Toyota dealer.