I used my steering column lock as a seal breacher more times than as a steering column lock.
I would just slip the bar through the metal or plastic seal and with a quick tug, it's off with no sweat.
If the spacing between the other trailers would allow, I'd back the trailer up with the doors closed until about 10 feet from the dock, then I'd get out and pop the seal so that the lumper can observe that the seal was not breached until right then. If that wasn't possible, I'd at least get the back of the trailer in sight from the open dock spacing and open the doors there. In other cases, the instructions by the security guard or dockmaster were to go ahead and pop the seal, open the doors, and leave the broken seal near the end of the trailer to confirm that the numbers matched. Other companies could have cared less.
The mighty plastic seal saved me from a big headache one time after dropping off a loaded trailer, in which I was to pick up an empty for the next load. I got underneath the trailer, I went around and did a circle check on the trailer and noticed a red plastic seal. "Hmmm... why is there a seal on an MT? I better find out!" I popped the seal and opened the doors... "why lookie hear, it's loaded! haha" The shipping/receiving office made a slight goof and was able to give me a different trailer, then I explained to the security guard what happened and that I popped the seal and off I went. Even if that seal wasn't there, I would have opened the doors anyways just to check to see how dirty the inside was and if I needed to sweep it out, but having a seal on what was supposed to be an empty trailer was puzzling at first!
Additionally, the company policy was to have a trailer lock on the doors even if it was empty. This prevented unwanted guests or unwanted cargo from mysteriously entering an MT trailer when left unattended.
Great post skywalker
Keep em comin!