Maneuverable Ergonomic Trailer Stands A Wheeled Jack Stand That Stops Trailers Tipping at the Dock

This patent describes a portable trailer stand on wheels, with an extendible leg that raises a ledge into contact with the underside of a parked trailer. It is designed to be moved into place by one worker without heavy lifting. It comes from Rite-Hite Holding Corporation, the Milwaukee company that dominates the loading dock equipment market, together with named co-applicant Joe Dibiase.

The Problem

At a loading dock, trucks reverse their trailers against the building so cargo can be moved in and out of the rear. Often the tractor unit then drives away and leaves the trailer behind. The trailer’s landing gear, the pair of legs near the front, takes over the weight that the truck was carrying.

Landing gear alone is not always enough. As a forklift drives into the trailer and moves loads around inside, the weight shifts, and a trailer can nose-dive or tip, which is one of the more serious hazards in warehouse work. The standard remedy is to place a trailer stand under the front end for extra support. Traditional stands, though, are heavy steel items that a worker has to drag into position and then crank, often bent over, in a yard surface that may be sloped or uneven. That is an ergonomic problem in its own right, and an awkward stand is a stand that gets skipped.

What This Invention Does

The stand keeps the support function but changes how it is handled. A frame carries an upper ledge, and an extendible leg is coupled to that frame. Moving the leg relative to the frame raises or lowers the ledge, so the ledge can be brought up to engage the underside of a parked trailer, or dropped to disengage it. A wheel is connected to the frame, and the key detail is that this wheel remains at a substantially fixed distance from the upper ledge as the ledge moves vertically.

That geometry is what makes the stand manoeuvrable. Because the wheel does not rise and fall with the ledge, the stand stays rolling on the ground throughout the adjustment, so a worker can wheel it under the trailer, extend the leg to take up the gap, and later retract it and wheel it away, without ever having to lift the assembly or wrestle it into position. The result is a stand that is quicker to deploy and less physically demanding, which in practice is the difference between one that gets used on every trailer and one that stays parked against the wall.

Key Features

• Frame with upper ledge. A ledge on the frame is what actually bears against the underside of the trailer.
• Extendible leg. The leg moves relative to the frame to raise or lower the ledge into and out of engagement.
• Fixed wheel-to-ledge distance. The wheel stays a substantially fixed distance from the ledge as the ledge moves, keeping the stand rollable during adjustment.
• Manoeuvrable by one worker. The wheeled design removes the dragging and lifting associated with conventional stands.
• Driveway use. The stand is designed for trailers parked on a driveway or yard surface at the dock.

Who Is Behind It

The application is filed jointly by Rite-Hite Holding Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Joe Dibiase of Ontario, Canada. Rite-Hite was founded in 1965 and makes vehicle restraints, dock levellers, dock seals and shelters, industrial doors, barrier systems and industrial fans, with around 2,200 staff across roughly 100 locations. The named inventors are Lucas I. Paruch, Charles Waugaman, David Swift, Joe Dibiase, Aaron J. Wiegel, Tony Duesing, Ronald P. Snyder, Andy Olson, Joe Korman, Jason Dondlinger, Jason Oates, Garret Wernecke and Donald Grant. The filing is a divisional of Australian application 2024204237 with priority from April 2018.

Why It Matters

Trailer separation and trailer tip-over incidents at loading docks cause serious injuries and deaths, and they are squarely within the scope of Australian work health and safety duties for anyone operating a distribution centre. Equipment that is easier to use is safety equipment that actually gets used, which is why the ergonomics here are not a comfort feature but the substance of the invention. With warehousing and distribution capacity expanding around Australian capital cities, dock safety hardware has a growing local market, and patent protection here covers both manufacture and supply into that market.

Related Concepts

• Loading dock – the working environment this equipment is designed for.
• Semi-trailer – the vehicle whose landing gear the stand supplements.
• Jack (device)) – the lifting principle behind the extendible leg.
• Human factors and ergonomics – the discipline driving the manoeuvrable design.
• Occupational safety and health – the regulatory context for dock safety equipment.
• Safe Work Australia – the national body setting Australian workplace safety policy.

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AU 2026202031 was published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 2 April 2026 and is open for public inspection. Patent applications represent inventions that are sought to be protected and do not necessarily reflect commercially available products.