MHI Reports on OSHA Dockboards Standard

MHI has reported that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced a revised standard that may affect material handling companies and their customers. The standard, OSHA a revision to 49 CFR 1910.26, discusses walking-working surfaces, specifically dockboards.

MHI product group, the Loading Dock Equipment Manufacturers (LODEM), members are the industry’s leading suppliers of loading dock equipment. They supply solutions worldwide and in virtually every major manufacturing and distribution sector.

Equipment used to make the loading dock area of a facility more accessible and to provide safe movement of goods in that dock area. Loading dock equipment includes elevating docks, dock levelers, dock boards, dock lights, bumpers, seals, shelters, vehicle restraints and traffic doors.

Dockboards are defined by OSHA as “devices for spanning short distances between, for example, two barges, that is not higher than four feet (1.22m) above the water or next lower level.” Dockboards include, but are not limited to, bridge plates, dock plates, and dock levelers.

MHI product group, the Loading Dock Equipment Manufacturers (LODEM), members are the industry’s leading suppliers of loading dock equipment.

The standard outlines that anyone using a dockboard (used to bridge the gap from the facility to the truck) that was put into use starting January 17, 2017 must include side walls or another measure to prevent objects or vehicles from running off the dockboard edge.

OSHA provides an exception to the standard by saying that “when an employer demonstrates there is no hazard of transfer vehicles running off the dockboard edge, the employer may use dockboards that do not have run-off protection.”

Dockboard design and structural requirements, including requirements for run-off guards, can be found in ANSI MH30.2-2015, Portable Dock Leveling Devices.