When it comes to safety systems where traffic and pedestrians meet, Armco barrier models are undeniably the best option. What can be a grey area, is how to site Armco barriers properly, and the correct ones to specify.

Wherever HGVs, LGVs and off-road vehicles operate, you will be constantly balancing two primary needs. Creating an efficient traffic flow that meets your productivity deadlines. Alongside managing vehicle and pedestrian movement to meet your H&S compliance goals.

Keeping everyone safe on site is also a moral duty. Plus, proper structural and operational management avoids damage to your building and vehicles.

This is all especially problematic in and around warehouse environments. These rely on visits from a constant stream of vehicles at docking bays, and a buzz of forklifts, pallet jacks, order picking machinery, platform trucks and other off-road vehicles inside.

You have the ideal solution.

Armco barrier systems are respected throughout the world. They have a superb track record for vehicle management and site safety. However, knowing this and putting it into practice are two different things.

You need to commission the right barriers and accessories based on a strategic plan of the best places to install warehouse Armco products. This is something we can advise on – to match your exacting workplace demands.

However, here are some handy general insights on how to optimise Armco barriers for warehousing.

Placing Armco safety barriers

The starting point is to map out all the possible places a vehicle could encounter either pedestrians or protrusions.

This includes locations like loading bay entrances, but also the ends of pallet racking aisles, shelving legs, support columns and wall structures. Are there places that expensive equipment, conveyor belts or other vehicles need to be shielded?

As they are so cost-effective, Armco barriers can also simply act as a visual reference to guide drivers into position.

Once you’ve completed your risk assessment, and sketched out Armco safety barrier installation locations, you can decide which size is best to create a reliable obstacle for those occasions when lorries or off-road vehicles veer off course.

Replacing the barriers is a great deal cheaper than rectifying structural and vehicle damage from a nasty collision. It is certainly an important way to keep your safety record and reputation intact. However, to maintain a good line of vision and keep your site clutter-free, you may want to limit the spread of your barriers.

Fortunately, Armco barriers are incredibly versatile. You can specify them in heights and lengths to match your site and its traffic type. For example, low-level safety barrier sections can guard against incursion from low ground clearance vehicles like forklifts. Or opt for a heavy-duty double crash rail to protect against a hit from HGV vehicles.

Best use of Wall Mounted Armco barrier

Warehouse walls and the sides of ramps for example are likely to be the scene of scuffs, grazes and prangs as vehicles manoeuvre around. Especially in locations that are tight for space, or which require that drivers reverse.

In many cases, mounting a warehouse Armco barrier on vertical planes can be the best solution. These barrier sections come with built-in ImpactSAFE shock-absorbing buffers, to further improve their performance. Yet, they are relatively quick and easy to mount on the brick, block or pre-cast concrete surfaces.

Think outdoor and indoor Armco barrier

Though there are various warehouse Armco barrier models, many of them are designed to be multi-purpose. Including being a great traffic management solution both inside warehouses and externally.

There can be so much emphasis on warehouse efficiency and control in your aisles, that a potential outdoor hazard gets overlooked.

Regularly evaluate the risk factors on all the approaches and within parking areas around your warehouse. Then, you can remain alert to ways to use a warehouse Armco barrier to good effect. The galvanised steel is weather-resistant, as well as being incredibly impact-resistant

Get the end right!

Lastly, once you have drawn up a purchasing list of Armco safety barriers for warehouses, you need to think about the end. Or ends to be exact.

Brand safe sells a range of Armco safety ends and cap posts, to increase their visibility to pedestrians and drivers, reduce the chances of impact, and avoid sharp edges injuring staff.

We are always happy to provide help in mapping out the best configurations of our strong and durable Armco barriers (and accessories). Including the best ways to install them to ensure you have the ultimate warehouse site safety systems.

Managing your fleet of Heavy Goods Vehicles – or controlling how visiting HGVs manoeuvre on your site – relies on time-served safety solutions. Including these HGV dock protection products.

No matter how carefully you mark the entrance and exit paths around your site, and the best places to park HGVs, a momentary lapse or some especially hectic traffic flow can leave you with a serious Health & Safety challenge.

One wrong move by an HGV driver and you risk an injury to them or a staff member, structural damage to your workplace, or a large vehicle repair bill.

Just to drive home how important this is, according to figures from the HSE, around ten people die each year on construction sites in the UK, from collisions with moving vehicles.

This makes it vital to introduce logical site planning and control systems, for any workplaces where larger vehicles operate. Especially around loading bays, where there’s likely to be a high concentration of both vehicles and humans.

Managing this situation certainly means investing in the leading HGV dock protection products. Items that have already proven to assist in seamless manoeuvring of heavy-duty vehicles.

Here is a quick guide to three of the best ideas for HGV traffic management and protection.

HGV landing plates

These HGV dock protection products help drivers position their vehicles centrally and neatly. Installing well-made HGV landing plates – in a high vis colour – also gives your team the best way to site lorry legs without damaging your tarmac or concrete.

They must be the right ones to achieve their purpose adequately though. Including having countersunk fixings and chamfered edges, to avoid creating a trip hazard,

The quality-assured ones Brandsafe sells are made from high molecular grade polymer. Giving them the properties needed to create an incredibly robust surface to protect your loading dock surface.

HGV Landing plates also provide a level surface ensuring even contact with trailer landing legs and a more stable base so there is no compromise to health and safety.

HGV Dock Wheel Guides

The HSE provides strict loading guidelines for HGV vehicles operating on commercial premises. This includes the sort of visibility issues you need to evaluate, especially for HGVs being reversed into spaces.

One of the best ways to make it easier for drivers to properly position their vehicle is to install dock wheel guides for HGVs. That way, you can be confident that their manoeuvring will be accurate and they are in the optimal position for safe loading and unloading.

Our high-vis, galvanised steel HGV cranked dock wheel guides are designed to funnel vehicles into the correct position. Without wheel trim damage. There are two sizes so you can find a wheel guide that sits at the right height for your traffic needs.

We also sell HGV Straight Dock Wheel Guides, which are the ideal way to transition vehicles in and out of internal loading areas.

HGV Wheel Stops

HGV dock protection products don’t come simpler – or more essential – than this.

Installing robust and hardwearing wheel stops, to show parking limits, provides drivers with a highly visual reminder. However, if they do lose sight of your HGV guides, the best wheel stops provide an unmissable indication that a parking limit has been reached.

One of the pitfalls of rubber wheel stops is that they can bend, split and fail too quickly. The Brandsafe version, however, is made from recycled truck tyres, moulded to withstand a reasonable amount of force.

That way, if a driver does inadvertently hit them, they get a sharp reminder to stop before doing any damage.

Low cost, compliant and cash-saving solutions

The common factor with all three of these HGV dock protection products is that they are built to last and affordable, making them great cost-effective HGV parking management aids.

With correct installation, these are also a low maintenance way to save you money, hassle and a dent in your safety record.

If you integrate them with a logical layout of speed bumps, column guards, bollards, delineators and other site traffic management items, you can tick off crucial safety goals. As well as improving traffic flow to boost productivity.

If you would like a quote for consignments of HGV dock protection products – and other impact and safety systems – please get in touch with the Brandsafe customer service team.