Warehouse loading bays
Yard ramps
A yard ramp, which is also sold as a forklift ramp or a warehouse dock ramp, lets a truck drive up from ground level into a vehicle, and it is how a site loads when it has no dock at all. It is also the usual answer to containers, because a container sits at a height and an angle that most docks were never built to serve.
Three situations that need one
The first is a building with no dock. A unit built as light industrial or taken on mid-lease frequently has a level access door and nothing else, and cutting a dock into it is a construction project. A yard ramp turns that door into a working bay without touching the building.
The second is containers. A container arrives on a trailer bed, not at dock height, and often at a slight angle, and a dock leveller sized for curtainsiders will not reach it cleanly. A ramp that meets it at ground level sidesteps the problem, which is why container handling is the commonest reason a site that does have docks still buys a ramp.
The third is capacity. A site with three docks and five vehicles waiting does not have a dock problem it can solve with equipment inside the building. A ramp adds a loading position in the yard, and it can be moved to wherever the queue is.
Mobile or fixed
The two forms answer different problems, and the choice is mostly about whether the loading position moves.
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Mobile yard ramp
On wheels, moved with a forklift and positioned where it is needed, with a hydraulic or mechanical lift to set the height to the vehicle. A portable loading ramp handles a range of bed heights, it can serve several positions in a yard, and it can be taken with you if the operation moves.
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Fixed ramp
Built into the yard as a permanent approach to one door, in steel or in concrete. Nothing to position and nothing to maintain hydraulically, at the cost of serving exactly one point at exactly one geometry.
A leased building usually points at the mobile ramp, since it is equipment rather than a modification, and a site that has settled its layout usually points at the fixed one.
What has to be right before a ramp is safe to use
A yard ramp puts a loaded forklift on a gradient, next to a vehicle that could move, on a surface that was laid for lorries rather than for precision. That combination is why the specification matters more here than the product does.
The capacity follows the heaviest loaded truck that will cross, not the pallet weight, and it is rated for the dynamic load of a truck braking on a slope rather than a static one. The width follows how the truck is driven rather than how wide the door is, and the length follows the gradient that truck can safely climb with a load raised.
The surface underneath is the part most often overlooked. A ramp needs firm, level ground to sit on, and a yard that dips or breaks up where the ramp stands will move it under load. Where the vehicle is a lorry rather than a container, a restraint that stops it pulling away while the forklift is on board is part of the same conversation.
What the survey settles
Four things that between them decide the ramp, and none of which is in a catalogue.
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What arrives, and at what height
Containers, curtainsiders, rigids and vans sit at different heights, and the spread between the lowest and the highest is what sets the lift range the ramp needs.
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The heaviest thing that will cross
The loaded truck, not the load. This sets the capacity, and it is the figure that is most often understated because people quote the pallet.
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The yard surface and the fall
Where the ramp will stand, what it is standing on and which way the ground falls. A ramp on a slope is a different geometry from the same ramp on the flat.
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Whether the position moves
One door forever, or wherever the queue is today. This is the whole of the mobile against fixed decision, and it is worth answering honestly rather than optimistically.
Frequently asked questions
Can a yard ramp handle containers?
Yes, and it is one of the main reasons sites buy one. A container sits higher than most trailer beds and a dock leveller often cannot serve it cleanly, whereas a ramp meets it at ground level. What needs checking is the lift range of the ramp against the container height on the chassis you receive.
Do we need to modify the building?
For a mobile ramp, no. It is equipment standing in the yard and it needs a level, firm surface and a level access door, which is why it suits a leased building or a unit that was never given a dock. A fixed ramp is construction and does need the yard worked on.
How much capacity should we specify?
It follows the heaviest loaded forklift or truck that will drive over it, including whatever it is carrying, rated dynamically rather than statically. Tell us the handling equipment and the typical load and that sets the figure. It is not a number worth guessing on.
Is a ramp cheaper than putting in a dock?
Substantially, in almost every case, because a dock is civils and a mobile ramp is equipment. The trade-off is that loading over a ramp is slower than loading at a dock, so it is the right answer where the volume does not justify the construction or where the building is not yours to alter.
Is a yard ramp the same thing as a loading platform?
Not quite, and the words get mixed. A ramp is a slope the truck drives up to reach the vehicle. A lorry loading platform, sometimes called a dock lift, raises a load vertically instead, which suits a site with no room for the run a ramp needs. Rejuva does not publish a page for the lift yet; tell us the constraint and we will say which of the two the site actually wants.
Can one ramp serve more than one door?
A mobile one can, and that is often the argument for it on a site with several level access doors or an intermittent queue. It has to be moved with a forklift each time, so the practical limit is how often you are willing to do that during a shift.
The four parts of a loading bay
These are chosen together rather than one at a time, because each one constrains the next: the leveller sets what the bay can serve, the shelter has to seal around the vehicle it was sized for, and the door has to live with the pit underneath it.
Have a project in mind?
Describe what needs to happen in the building and we will come back with a proposed approach, the specialist who would carry it out and a budget you can work with.