Unloading the truck from both sides, or; Unloading the truck from one side with forklift tine extensions called “slippers”. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/1/16/Unloading-truck-watch. jpg/460px-Unloading-truck-watch. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/1/16/Unloading-truck-watch. jpg/728px-Unloading-truck-watch. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:346,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:547,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">
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To unload a truck/ trailer from only one side, regular fork tines unload the first side of the truck’s freight, while for the second/far side of the trucks freight, fork slippers are used to carefully lift/drag the loads across to the close side of the truck, where they can be unloaded again with regular forks. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/4/46/Unloading-with-slippers. jpg/460px-Unloading-with-slippers. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/4/46/Unloading-with-slippers. jpg/728px-Unloading-with-slippers. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:231,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:366,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">
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Loading the truck from both sides Loading the truck from one side without tine extensions or; Loading the truck from one side with forklift tine extensions “slippers” {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/a/ac/Loading-truck-watch. jpg/460px-Loading-truck-watch. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/a/ac/Loading-truck-watch. jpg/703px-Loading-truck-watch. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:366,“bigWidth”:704,“bigHeight”:560,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">
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Typically when unloading a container by hand most freight will still need to be palletised to be put into stock/racking by forklift operators, so one or two workers will be assigned to the container and work inside with a pallet and pallet jack. They will stack the freight on pallets and have a forklift operator take away full pallets and then replenish empty pallets so the container unloaders can once again use the pallet jack to move the pallet further inside the container and begin palletising another pallet of goods. Depending on how many goods there are, it can take anywhere from 2 - 8 hours to manually unload a 20 ft or 40 ft shipping container - e. g. a 20ft shipping container of lightweight but large boxes could be manually unloaded by one person in less than 2 hours, however a 40 ft container full of small boxes can easily take 2 workers a full 8 hour shift to unload, especially if there are different types of freight that need to be put aside while palletising other types of freight that are mixed inside the container.
Although large container yard ramps are available and occasionally used to unload containers that are still on the trucks, generally the most common container ramps are small ones that the container needs to be set on the ground for. When unloading a container on the ground with a forklift, typically you should unload the first row of freight close to the opening of the container, then place the container ramp in place with the forklift, so you have some space to be level while driving up the ramp and in and out into the container. As the inside of most shipping containers have wooden floors on their metal frame, you will commonly hear a lot of creaking and cracking noises when driving a forklift inside a container, however this is normal so long as you cannot visibly see any damage happening to the container flooring. When exiting a container going reverse down ramp adjust the load as not too high to hit the container roof, and not too low to catch on the floor/ramp. The general trick is to lift as high as you can without hitting the roof, and lower slowly and smoothly as soon as you clear the roof, and keep an eye on the ramp.
When loading a container, depending on what size pallets you have, typically you will load one as far left/against the container wall as possible, and the other one to the right/ as far right against the container wall as possible. If not loading tall pallets, repeat this for the top stack of pallets. You can load containers double stack as well to save time if you like, but this isn’t recommended for beginners or those without a feel for how the freight behaves - pallets of boxed goods are easiest, pallets of stacked bags/sacks are much harder and prone to tearing open. For the last set of pallets, if loading on the floor with a simple steel container ramp, definitely take this away if possible as it will make it much easier to get the last few pallets in.
