When it comes to truck driving, safety is paramount. The sheer size of the vehicles alone makes them a hazard on the road, and they are far more likely to cause accidents and injuries than cars, motorbikes, and cycles are. If you’re a truck driver, you need to make sure you’re doing all you can, all the time, to keep yourself and your fellow road users safe and to ensure you don’t let accidents strip you of your trucking authority.
Be aware of YOUR speed limits
More often than not, speed limit signs will dictate one maximum speed limit for smaller vehicles, and another one for larger ones. Your truck will fall under the larger-vehicle limit, which will be slower than the one imposed on cars, and it is of the utmost importance that you are aware of this. Do not confuse the limits, as doing so will see you go faster than you should be going with your type of vehicle, and will, therefore, make you more of a danger.
You should be particularly aware of your speed when you come to turns in the road. Trucks are far more likely to lose control of themselves as they curve than cars are, and their drivers MUST slow down when their road begins to deviate.
Pay attention to your space cushion
Your space cushion is the room that immediately surrounds your truck on all of its sides, and other vehicles shouldn’t be encroaching upon it. Of course, you cannot account for other drivers, and anybody could get too close to you at any time. What you can account for, however, is your own driving skills, and making sure your truck never gets too close to anything else that it shares the road with.
Importantly, this means maintaining a safe distance between yourself and the vehicle in front of you. As your truck will have more weight, size, and power than all of the cars that it follows, you going into the back of one can and will cause serious damage. For this reason, you should stay two vehicle lengths behind cars when the traffic is free-flowing, allowing you a safe stop time should the course you are taking dictate you to halt.
Make sure your truck can be seen
As mentioned, the size of trucks makes them one of the biggest dangers on the road, and it is for this reason why safety procedures must be in place to ensure other road users know when your truck is approaching them. Once they do, they can do whatever it is they need to do, which could involve getting as far away from you as possible, to keep themselves safe. To make sure your truck can be seen, you should top it with emergency vehicle lights that pulsate ultra-bright LED rays. Once you do, you’ll be seen coming for miles.
Whether you drive your truck for work purposes or whether you drive it just for the fun of it, you should seek to be safe at all times whenyou’re behind the wheel.
