Trucking in the winter can be highly dangerous, requiring a unique set of abilities to get to your destination securely. Trucking in the winter presents several challenges for vehicle owners, particularly truck drivers. Compared to its smaller competitors, the big-bodied automobile used to transport freight is becoming comparatively difficult to handle owing to a lack of stability on cold and snowy roads. When starting, stopping, manoeuvring, and braking on slick roads, the issue remains. Poor vision is also an issue for them, as cloudy days and nights make it impossible to look around, raising the likelihood of crashes and accidents.
As India experiences an exceptionally lengthy winter this year, below are eight suggestions for truck driving in cold weather.
Things Every Driver Needs to Follow While Driving Commerical Vehicle During Winter
We have prepared some important trucking safety recommendations to ensure you remain safe on the highways this winter:
Pre-Trip Inspection is Important
The initial stage for all competent drivers, especially in freezing weather, is pre-inspection. Every vehicle that steps out for a trip should be fully check everything before the route. The inspection must check the tire pressure, motor oil, wiper blades, batteries, fluids, and lights.
Examine Your Vehicle
It is critical to prepare your truck for wintertime to avoid significant complications. Before you start the road, meticulously inspect the tire pressure, engine oil, and antifreeze levels. You can always have your automobile inspected by a professional. It ensures that the truck is suitable to survive the rigorous season of wear and tear.
Keep All Lights Cleaned Off
You must see, and others must notify you. As you travel, snow will form outside your truck, covering your lights and possibly your windscreen wipers. Ensure to stop frequently to remove the ice from your headlights and indicators to enhance your accessibility to others and guarantee you can observe where you’re going.
Do Not Obey the Brake Lights
In low-light conditions, you may have to rely on monitoring the taillights in front of you. However, it is a risky behaviour to develop because it is impossible to assess the space between you and the automobile ahead of you, and you could wind up chasing those taillights off the road. So instead, another recommendation for winter truck driving is to retain a safe speed and keep your eyes on the road stripes if they are visible.
If you can’t detect the road lines, are compelled to drive too slowly owing to limited visibility, or can’t view anything, it’s necessary to get off the roadway and seek a secure spot to park. In poor visibility, never drive on the shoulder of the road since you enhance your possibility of being involved in an accident.
Exercise Extreme Caution When Crossing Bridges
Higher structures, such as footbridges and highway overpasses, frequently freeze first after a snowstorm. These elevated structures may not necessarily be coated with salt or sand to dissolve the snow, causing trucks to turn or lose control. Furthermore, black ice circumstances make roads treacherous and frequently seen on bridges, so be alert and cautious.
Pay Attention to the Truck Tyres
It is critical to examine the tires’ quality before winter driving. Damaged tires are more likely to tumble and slide in sloppy and slippery winter weather. Thus it is critical to inspect tire pressure. It is also believed that for every 10°F change in temperature, the pressure lowers by 1 to 2 lbs, so drive carefully. Additionally, before beginning the trip, pump the tires to the optimum level and engage in winter or all-season tires, which provide superior traction in slippery conditions.
Be Ready for the Overwhelming Situations
It’s usually a smart idea to keep winter weather survival supplies on hand during the season. Include a flashlight, extra food and water, a compact shovel, additional battery chargers, matches, a bag of sand or salt, and other items in your vehicle kit. These goods may prove helpful. If you are in a difficult circumstance, and it’s always a good idea to have things on hand.
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Keep Anti-Gel on Hand
Before applying anti-gel to your fuel tanks, check with your trucking company’s winter operating standards. Some businesses will let you do this, while others will not. In case you didn’t know, diesel fuel despises frigid weather. Fuel that has not been sufficiently prepared for chilly temperatures will start to gel at 20 degrees Fahrenheit or lower settings. So, you’ll have anything like buttery in your tanks rather than liquid. That is a horrible thing.
- If you are permitted to apply anti-gel, keep an eye on the temperature and climate forecasts.
- If temperatures are projected to fall below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, pour half a bottle into every diesel tank.
- If the temperature is under 0 degrees Fahrenheit, apply a whole bottle to every tank.
Even if you have a bunk heater, you can be better off leaving your truck idle while parked to keep your gasoline from gelling and your contents from freezing. A maintenance call for a gelled truck is always less expensive than an anti-gel.
Stay Calm & Smooth
In chilly weather, avoid performing anything unexpected – unexpected braking, abrupt acceleration, cornering, and so on. If you need to slow down on a slippery road, gently pump your brakes. The goal is to keep a steady speed and prevent performing anything that will lose friction on the slick roadways.
Be Extra Cautious
Don’t hesitate to bring warmer clothes and blankets. If you’re going on a long trip, bring a flashlight, shovel, matches, traction devices, a sack of sand, and so on. Ensure you have emergency support for trucks if you get stopped or have a breakdown on the road.
Check Twice
When vision is limited in a whiteout blizzard, detecting traffic lights and signals can be challenging. So before driving through a crossroads or heading down a one-way street, take a second look.
Conclusion
Winter is the toughest difficult season for commercial drivers. We believe these recommendations and our additional winter driving standard principles will assist you in experiencing a safe and profitable season. Safety always comes first in trucking, particularly during the winter. Please be cautious, and understand that no burden is beyond your life. In conjunction with the advice in this article, search out further winter truck operating instructions from veteran truck drivers that have decades of driving throughout the winter under their belt. And, please, drive safely and enjoy your winter driving season.
