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As standard dock lifts are supplied with removable guard rails. At the time of manufacture the guard rails are bolted to a threaded plate that is welded to the dock lift platform. These guard rails are now removable however they require hand tools to first remove the locking bolts, 4 locking bolts per guard rail. Based on the amount of work required and the time involved removing this style of guard rail is not a common practice to do repetitively. Another option is permanent guard rails, as the name implies these guard rails are permanently welded into position and require cutting equipment to remove. This is the least flexible design of guard rails available however some manufacturers provide this design as a cost cutting measure. In some applications there can be a requirement to regularly remove the guard rails an example would be a dock lift that is installed in front of a conventional dock leveler. This design of easily removed guard rails is referred to as pocket style guard rails; basically lift them up and out, no tools required. The dock lift services the low trucks by lifting the product up to the dock height, if a conventional trailer arrives at the loading dock the pocket style guard rails are temporarily removed. The trailer now backs over the closed dock lift to the dock leveler and is unloaded. When the truck departs the pocket style guard rails are quickly and easily re-installed on the dock lift.