A loading dock safety system coordinates the truck, the dock door and the people around them so that a forklift only enters a trailer that is secured, and people and vehicles are warned when they are in the danger zone. Typical parts are a vehicle or trailer restraint or wheel chocks, inside and outside signal lights linked to the restraint, sensors that detect a trailer or a person at the door, and interlocks that keep the door or leveler closed until the trailer is held. The aim is to prevent trailer creep, early departure and falls from the dock edge.
The full guide is Loading dock forklift safety, which ranks dock controls in order. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178(m)(7) requires the brakes of highway trucks to be set and wheel chocks placed while they are boarded by powered industrial trucks, and 1910.26 covers dockboards. A dock safety system adds engineering controls on top: lights that only turn green when the restraint is engaged, and alarms when someone overrides it. Some sites add cameras or presence sensors at the apron and inside the trailer. Check how the system behaves when a restraint cannot engage a trailer, since that is when crews fall back to manual chocks.