Winter is coming – safe driving for work

Thursday, November 10, 2022 - 08:10
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Winter brings all kinds of hazards for the commercial driver. Driving for Better Business looks at you how you can prepare your drivers so that they always reach their destination safely.

Here are Driving for Better Business’ top tips to share with your drivers for safe winter driving.

Driving Tips for Winter

Let’s start with the first 4 things to remind your drivers about.

  1. Don’t wait for winter! Falling leaves obscure hazards and markings, and they are very slippery. Autumn also brings earlier twilight, dark mornings and dazzling sun low in the sky.
  2. Check your vehicle carefully – daily for vans, weekly for cars. Pay particular attention to tyre treads, lights and fluids – oil, water, and windscreen cleaner. Make sure you have de-icer and scrapers on board.
  3. Drive smoothly. Hard acceleration, harsh braking, and sudden cornering all make skidding more likely. Allow extra anticipation and reaction time. Remember that, even if you are handling the conditions well, other road users may not.
  4. Drive slowly in rain, mist or fog. 13% of all serious collisions involve poor weather, and almost 80% of these involve rain. Do not under-estimate how much you must slow down if it’s raining hard – poor visibility, aquaplaning, much longer braking distances and flooding are all hazards. Don’t drive through any standing water deeper than four inches – even an eggcupful can wreck your engine and leave you stranded. If the road looks wet, yet there’s no spray from the tyres passing you, then there may be black ice. Ice in the top corners of your windscreen, and on your mirror arms can be an indicator. Finally, only 41% of roads run by local highways authorities are gritted. Local authorities are not automatically obliged to remove snow or ice from roads. Equally National Highways has extensive winter safety resources including 535 gritters – but they also have 4,300 miles of road to treat.

Winter driving – the things to look out for

Your drivers will have heard all of this before but the change of seasons is a good time to reiterate these winter driving safety rules. Here’s another tips to share with your drivers.

  1. Keep your distance. In poor conditions, the two second rule becomes the four second rule. Leave twice the normal space between you and the vehicle in front, and give extra room when passing vulnerable road users.
  2. Check the weather forecasts regularly against your route. Be flexible and choose the safest route, not necessarily the shortest.
  3. Have a survival pack on board. If you get stuck in snow, it could be a life saver. It should include warm clothing, waterproofs, a torch, energy bars or other long-lasting food, and bottled water. Chemical heat pads can be really useful for tucking into gloves or boots. Have a battery pack so your phone can remain charged.
  4. Signal early and for longer than usual. Manoeuvre smoothly.
  5. Watch out for high ground. In high winds, elevated positions or very open roads are particularly dangerous. If you are pulling an empty curtainsider, open the curtains before leaving – this stops the trailer acting like a huge sail. Equally in icy conditions, high ground like bridges often freeze first and may not have been gritted.
  6. Don’t stop on the hard shoulder unless the vehicle literally will not move. Take the first exit from a major road and find somewhere safe to park. Don’t push on to your intended stopping place if the conditions are treacherous.
  7. Wear your PPE. Solid waterproof boots with a good tread are important so you don’t slip as you climb down from the cab. Gloves with a strong grip are also important – freezing metal sticks to skin.
  8. Heed weather warnings. If the Met warns against unnecessary travel, then don’t go unless the journey is critical. Better that deliveries are late, or customers serviced late, than you put yourself and others at risk.

If you manage drivers you can check out the guides on autumn and winter driving in the Van Drivers’ Toolkit, which is free to download and share.

Bryn Brooker, Nextbase‘s head of road safety commented: “Every year bad weather contributes to thousands of incidents on the UK’s roads. November is often particularly bad, as drivers deal with dramatically less sunlight and more poor weather.”

Avoid standing water:

“Avoid standing water where possible. Don’t drive into flood water that’s moving or more than 10cm (4 inches) deep. If you do drive through deep water ensure you check your brakes as soon as possible afterwards. Drive slowly through the water but keep your engine revving – slipping the clutch could help in a manual car.”

Extend your following distance in bad weather:
“When the weather is wet, double your following distance from at least two seconds to at least four seconds. Watch as the driver ahead of you passes a landmark like a pole or a bridge, then count how many seconds it takes you to reach the same point. Four seconds should mean if the car ahead of you stops ahead of you in a hurry you have space to stop too.”

Ten times slower in ice and snow:

“In icy or snowy conditions, it will be harder to stop, so extend your following distance even more and drive a lot slower. In fact you should do everything more slowly, as suddenly braking or turning can cause you to lose traction and skid. If you have to break, do it slowly.”

“In a manual car, start in second gear instead of first, as this will give you more control. In an automatic, check your car’s manual to see if they have a recommended winter driving gear.”

Give yourself some more time to get the windshield clear:

“Don’t start driving until you have good visibility out of your windshield, which could take a few minutes.”

“This might just take you blasting the air conditioning for a while to demist the windshield. Or it might require you to get out a scraper and get any snow and ice off. While out of the car, make sure there isn’t any snow on the roof, as this could fall down and obscure your vision while driving.”

Pack a winter driving kit in case things go wrong:

“Breakdowns happen. No matter how well serviced your car is or how good your driving is, there’s always a chance you could be stuck somewhere cold waiting for help.”

“Keep warm clothes in your car, some waterproof and sturdy footwear, a high-vis jacket, a shovel, and of course jump leads. An old rug could also be useful to help your front wheels get traction on ice.”

“An ice scraper will also be useful to get ice off your windscreen, and a power bank will make sure you always have some mobile phone battery to call for help if needed.”

Use a dash cam – in case you need to prove something

“In case you are in an accident through no fault of your own, a Nextbase dash cam is your best tool to protect yourself from spurious claims. It is the only dash cam brand tested in UK-weather conditions in Wales, meaning it can accurately record what is going on even in very poor weather.”

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