Alpha Omega Shelving replaced the dock pads at a facility in the RIDC O’Hara industrial park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The work was quoted, supplied and installed by our own crew — no subcontractors on site.

Dock bumpers are the most overlooked component on a loading dock and the one doing the most work. Every trailer that backs in makes contact with the building, and the bumper is the only thing absorbing that impact. When pads wear flat or go missing, the force transfers directly into the concrete dock face and the door frame, turning a routine replacement into masonry repair and lost use of the door.

Worn bumpers cause a second problem that is easier to miss. As the pad compresses, the trailer comes closer to the building than the dock was designed for, which puts the trailer bed at the wrong height relative to the pit and loads the dock leveler and seal in ways they were not engineered for. Replacing the pads restores the correct standoff distance and takes that stress back off the surrounding equipment.

Dock bumpers are consumables. They are built to wear out, and replacing them on a schedule is one of the lowest-cost pieces of preventive maintenance available on a loading dock. The facilities that budget for them avoid the repairs that follow when they are allowed to fail.

Alpha Omega Shelving supplies and installs loading dock equipment throughout Pittsburgh and the surrounding tri-state area from our facility in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. Because installation is handled by our own crew rather than a subcontractor, the company that quotes the work is the company on your dock — and there is one number to call if anything needs attention afterward.