Winter Tips For Trucking Jobs
Winter is just around the corner so we wanted to put together some winter driving and seasonal maintenance tips for experienced drivers. Winter driving is certainly different than summer driving. Snow, wind, and ice need to be respected in order to make safe trips. Following these tips could bea matter of life and death.
Here are some safe winter driving tips for truck driving jobs.
- Use only quality fuel.
- In extreme cold, poor quality fuel can begin to gel making it hard to start the motor.
- If temperatures are below +21 degrees F, keep the truck running or idling.
- Check antifreeze levels often. A rule of thumb is to check it every night in the winter months.
- Switch the reefer to continuous run mode.
- Keep snow chains ready and available. You can purchase these items from the maintenance department.
- Remember, during the months of October through May, chains are REQUIRED in many states.
We hope this short list will make your trucking jobs a little safer during the winter months. On the was the issue of adjusting the reefer unit to continuous run mode. We are pointing this out a second time because a lot of drivers turn off the refer unit thinking that the freight will be OK to save money. It sounds like a good idea especially when its 19 below outside.
The problem is that many drivers forget to turn the unit back on and the temperature controlled freight gets damaged when the sunlight warms the inside temperature the next day.
Don’t make that mistake or you’ll be looking for new trucking jobs!