Seven Basic Tips for Staying Safe on the Road in Your Truck This Winter

Providing truck service in Wytheville, VA, for over 34 years, we’ve seen a lot of winter accidents that could have been prevented by just taking a few extra precautions. If you’re going to be doing significant mileage this winter, here are seven tips to keep yourself and everyone around you on the road safe:

• Slow down: This is the simplest and most obvious of all precautions, but the truth is the truckers are often the most experienced drivers on the road, and it is natural for experienced drivers to feel like there’s nothing they haven’t seen before. However, there are too many variables outside of your control in the winter, especially in slick road conditions, so even if it puts you behind schedule, slow down.
• Keep distance between yourself and other vehicles: Again, this is very obvious. You don’t want to need to brake, and the best way to ensure you have space to slow down gradually should something happen is to make sure you have as much room as possible between yourself and the vehicles around you. This also means that you should avoid driving in packs with other trucks. These packs tend to naturally form because of the speed of traffic, but avoid them as much as you can.
• Don’t stop on the shoulder: Snow can play tricks on drivers’ eyes. In heavy snow, drivers can mistake your position as being on the road—it can even look like you’re moving in front of them—and this trick of the eye has been known to cause people to ram head-on into stopped semis. This is probably less dangerous for you than for them, but we’re concerned for everyone’s safety here.
• Always pre-check your truck before getting on the road: Always make sure your fluid is good, your heaters and defrosters are working, your mirrors are clean, you have enough gas, your tire pressure is good, your headlights are clean and bright and your brakes work before getting out onto the road.
• Pack an emergency kit: Make sure to have supplies, some food, a first aid kit and the toolbox on hand at all times. It’s also a really good idea to have roadside assistance lined up if anything happens.
• Don’t race to make an appointment at the risk of your own safety: We mentioned earlier that you need to slow down, but this point bears some refining. We know a lot of drivers make their reputations by always being on time, but in severe winter road conditions it is more than acceptable to be a little late if it means being safe. Just make a phone call.
• Careful with the brakes: Everyone knows that danger is heightened when braking in winter conditions. The best tips we know for staying safe when it comes to braking are to try to engage the brake as little as possible, never engage the jake brake and only brake when your truck is perfectly straight and aligned. Any other way and you risk sliding.

At Complete Truck Service Inc., we offer 24-hour emergency towing services and roadside assistance, and provide some of the best local truck service in Wytheville, VA. If you are looking to make sure your truck stays protected this winter, give us a call and learn about our emergency towing and roadside assistance service, so you know you can have backup in case anything goes wrong.

Stay safe out there this winter. If your truck needs any maintenance before winter starts, we’re here for that, too. We offer a wide variety of truck services, and have probably the most well credentialed team of mechanics and engineers in the area. Give us a call today and find out what makes us the area’s premier truck service provider!

Categorised in: Truck Service

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