How many security guards does a warehouse need?

The two posts most warehouses have

The gate during operating hours: an officer checking driver credentials and paperwork against appointments, logging trailer and seal numbers in and out, controlling visitors and contractors and holding unscheduled arrivals for the shipping office. The yard when the office is closed: an officer walking the trailer rows checking seals and doors, the fence line and gates, fuel and equipment, and the dock face, on varied rounds. On a small site the same officer moves from one to the other when the last truck leaves; on a large one they run at the same time.

When a second officer is needed

Two gates that both take trucks. A yard so large that a full round takes longer than the interval the loaded trailers justify, in which case the route is split. Shift change on a three-shift operation, when hundreds of people pass the gate in both directions and a single officer cannot check credentials and watch the yard. Cargo of a value or a kind that the insurer wants a fixed post on around the clock. A site with a history of organized cargo theft, where a fixed post at the gate and a moving one in the yard are the answer for a period.

Hours matter more than headcount

Doubling the officers costs the same as doubling the hours, and hours usually buy more. A yard that loses trailers on Saturday night needs a Saturday night post, not a second officer on Tuesday. The daily report from the first weeks shows when the yard is tested, and the hours move to match. Weekend coverage from Friday evening to Monday morning is the most common shape.

Sizing it with a walk-through

A supervisor walks the gate, the dock face, the trailer rows and the fence line with the site manager, reads the appointment schedule and the shift pattern, and proposes the posts and hours, priced by the hour with a vehicle where the yard needs one. The warehouse security article works through gates, yards and shift change in more detail, and the one guard vs two article covers the second-officer decision.