Safety barriers and bollards
Barriers and bollards protect people, plant, buildings and infrastructure from a moving vehicle, not just racking. Where they go depends on what is standing behind them and what happens if a forklift reaches it.
Last updated 2026-08-23
What barriers and bollards are for
A bollard is a single fixed post; a barrier is usually a run of rail or steel panel between posts. Both do the same basic job: put something solid and floor-fixed between a vehicle path and whatever needs protecting. That "whatever" is broader than racking. Fire doors, sprinkler risers, electrical switchboards, gas lines, dock levellers, office partitions and building columns are all common bollard targets, and all of them fail differently to a struck upright. A building wall sitting close behind a racking run is its own case again, closer to a wall-protection question than a standard bollard placement, because the load path runs through the racking before it ever reaches the barrier.
End-of-aisle barriers sit at the mouth of an aisle, usually paired with or instead of a column guard on the racking itself, and their job is as much about slowing or stopping a vehicle before it reaches the corner as absorbing impact on the corner itself.
Barriers versus column guards
The distinction matters because the two products are specified for different failure modes. A column guard is sized around what a single upright needs to survive a glancing hit. A barrier protecting a switchboard or a gas meter is sized around what happens if that equipment is struck directly, which can be a safety incident well beyond a damaged frame.
Where a barrier run also happens to face racking, it can do double duty, but it should not be assumed to replace dedicated upright protection just because it is nearby. The two are chosen against different risks and different consequences.
Barrier placement often gets decided at the same time as the racking layout itself, since moving a dock door or a staging area changes where the highest-traffic vehicle paths run. It is worth revisiting after any racking installation or reconfiguration, rather than assuming the original barrier positions still match the new traffic pattern.
- Bollards and barriers protect people, plant and building services, not only racking
- Column guards are sized against what an upright needs to survive
- A barrier facing racking is a bonus, not a substitute for dedicated protection
Placement follows traffic and consequence
The same logic that governs column guards applies here, with a higher stake: what is behind the barrier, how often plant moves past it, and what happens if it is hit. A pedestrian crossing point near a forklift route, a dock door, a plant room entrance and a loading bay corner are all common placements, and each is really a decision about separating people from moving plant as much as it is about protecting a fixed asset.
Barrier height, spacing and fixing method vary by manufacturer and by what is being protected, which is a specification exercise for whoever is designing the layout rather than something with a single universal answer. A barrier sized for a slow-moving pedestrian crossing is not the same product as one sized to stop a loaded counterbalance truck taking a corner too fast, and treating them as interchangeable is a common way a site ends up under-protected in the one spot that matters most.
Reviewing barrier placement is worth doing whenever the floor plan changes materially, not only when an incident prompts it. A new dock door, a relocated staging lane or a different mix of truck types moving through the building can all shift where the highest-consequence points on the floor actually are.
Barriers are prevention, not a verdict on racking
Fitting barriers or bollards around a warehouse says nothing about whether the racking elsewhere in the building is structurally sound. That is a separate question, decided during a racking inspection by someone qualified to make the call, not by how well the aisle ends are guarded.
A history of forklift strikes recorded against a particular corner is a useful prompt to review barrier placement there, the same way it is a prompt to review protection on the racking itself.
Common questions
- What is the difference between a bollard and a barrier?
- A bollard is a single fixed post. A barrier is usually a run of rail or panel between posts, covering a longer stretch. Both are floor-fixed and both work by standing between a vehicle path and whatever needs protecting.
- Do bollards only protect racking?
- No. They are commonly used around fire doors, switchboards, gas lines, dock levellers and building columns as well as racking. What they protect depends on what is standing behind them.
- Should every aisle end have a barrier as well as a column guard?
- It depends on the traffic and what else is nearby. The two products protect against different things — a column guard is sized around an upright, a barrier around whatever asset or route it is placed to protect — so the decision is layout-specific rather than a fixed rule.
Sources
- WorkSafe Victoria — Pallet racking operation and maintenance — Regulator guidance on managing forklift and vehicle risk around racking, the operating context barrier placement responds to. Retrieved 2026-08-17.
Part of our guide to warehouse safety equipment.