[Tagging] Area of loading docks = ?

[John Willis]

I was looking how to tag the area used for loading & unloading freight, usually a “private” area of an otherwise public retail building.

I would call this area a loading dock, but “loading dock”  https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dloading_dock <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity=loading_dock> is used to tag the individual docks that trucks use at this larger area. 

Mapping this area is not an issue at a commercial cargo warehouse (it is the entire building & area), but many commercial retail buildings have a private freight loading dock for good deliveries that take up 10-20% of the area around the building.

example areas:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/573758411 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/573758411>  Maebashi-Minami Costco 
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/573758411 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/573758411> Ota Aeon Mall (one of 4, but the only outdoor one).
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/573759922 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/573759922> Costco Santee
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/573759921 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/573759921> Home Depot Santee	


For some buildings, this is merely a driveway and an entrance to a totally indoor area (common at shopping malls), but for a lot of retail places this is often an outdoor area, with different private amenities (freight storage, palettes, etc), delivery truck parking, etc. that are hidden away from public/customer access. Tagging that this is a “delivery” or “freight” area, and is access=private, (as opposed to access=customers) would be nice. many larger facilities (a warehouse store, a Shopping Mall, etc) have a separate entrance and area dedicated to these, so mapping them is easy, but other facilities are much more ambiguous, and being able to separate the areas would show what areas are not for customer access - and where a delivery truck driver should go. These often have names/refs for a very large facility that may have more than 1 (like myAeon Mall example), and then the loading docks would have individual refs and tags. 

I assume amenity=loading_dock is used on nodes where this area meets the building, 

What would this larger (outdoor) area be? calling it amenity=parking seems to be wrong. 

searching the wiki doesn't offer any clues. 

How would you go about mapping these areas? 

Javbw
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