Patent ID: 7736114

Claim:
A dock/vehicle system comprising: a loading/unloading dock having a dock end; and a vehicle having a rear end positionable at the dock end; said dock and said vehicle having complementary conveyors, each said conveyor having a plurality of elongated, laterally spaced apart lifting/holding slats and a plurality of elongated, laterally spaced apart reciprocating conveying slats between the lifting/holding slats; said conveying slats on the dock having end portions and said conveying slats in the vehicle having complementary end portions that are connectable to the conveying slats on the dock; said lifting/holding slats each having a lower portion and an upper portion; said upper portions of the lifting/holding slats on the dock being connectable with the upper portions of the lifting/holding slats in the vehicle; said dock including means connected to the conveying slats for lengthwise reciprocating, of both the conveying slats on the dock and the conveying slats in the vehicle; said dock and said vehicle each having means for lifting the upper portions of the lifting/holding slats and moving them together upwardly from the lower portions of the lifting/holding slats on the dock and in the vehicle; and wherein the upper portions of the lifting/holding slats on the dock include rear end portions and dowels extendable rearwardly out from said rear end portions, and the upper portions of the lifting/holding slats in the vehicle have end portions with dowel-receiving openings, whereby the dowels carried by the upper portions of the lifting/holding slats on the dock are extendable into the dowel openings in the upper portions of the lifting/holding slats in the vehicle, said dowels holding the ends of the upper portions of the lifting/holding slats on the dock and in the vehicle together while the lifting/holding slats are moved up and down.