Maintenance of assets is a concern for any business. In the fast paced world of logistics and materials handling, it is more important than ever to keep equipment in good repair. Every shutter door, every handling device, every dock shelter should have its own maintenance and repairs schedule.
The first reason for this approach is safety. It is critical that all who come into contact with the equipment used in your business find themselves in a safe environment at all times. Company employees may spend long hours at a location, repeatedly using the same equipment and facilities day in and day out. As the saying goes, ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. Working in the same environment for long periods may lead to a lax attitude to safety among staff. Visitors too are at risk when it comes to accidents in the workplace. When someone is in unfamiliar surroundings, they may be oblivious to the dangers of the processes going on around them. Or some visitors may be flippant when it comes to the health and safety requirements of the site. In these cases, keeping all equipment in acceptable condition is especially important. For example, a visitor to your company could stray into a restricted area and fall from a loading dock. They may then try to claim that the accident was due to negligence on the part of the company. Of course, the visitor should not have been in that area in the first place. But if it is found that maintenance has been neglected – let’s say, required repairs had not been made to the dock shelter – it could add weight to their case, to the detriment of the company. If the visitor takes legal action, the small oversight of failing to make dock shelter repairs could prove very costly to your business.
Prompt maintenance of facilities is usually the most cost effective strategy in the long run. If a forklift truck breaks down, it may be possible in the short term to save money by dividing the workload among the other trucks, rather than calling for immediate repairs. But what if several more trucks then break down in short order? (They’re all in the same union, you know!) This may lead to it being necessary to bring in more trucks from a hire company, to keep the warehouse up and running until the equipment can be repaired. And if you’ve ever had to hire a forklift truck, you’ll know that that’s never the most cost effective way to do it! Or if a dock shelter is in need of repairs, don’t leave it until the whole assembly collapses and puts the loading dock out of action for an indefinite period. Instead, entrust the specialists from Draper Developments with your dock shelter repairs.
Draper Developments have over thirty years’ experience in manufacturing and effecting repairs to dock shelters of all kinds. Even if the dock shelter was manufactured by another company, Draper Developments are the number one choice for service and repairs.
