Fleet Harmony Online Fleet Management Software is pleased to provide these safety and winter driving tips. Feel free to share this free fleet and trucking information with your friends, family, colleagues, and staff.
Prepare your fleet in the fall. Do a complete and thorough maintenance and inspection of your fleet, including checking fluid levels and installing matching winter tires; ensuring they are inflated to the proper tire pressure. Fleet Harmony Cloud Maintenance Management Software includes a maintenance scheduler that makes fleet maintenance planning and scheduling easy. If you do not have fleet maintenance software, keep a fleet management spreadsheet up to date.
Prepare a winter safety kit. Create a heavy equipment maintenance checklist to be used by maintenance staff each time maintenance and repairs are performed on the unit. Remember, items can be consumed through the course of the winter. Some items to include in your winter safety kit are:
Flashlight and batteries
Booster cables
Traction sand and salt
Candle & waterproof matches
Blanket, gloves and hat
Cell charger
Candy
Windshield washer
Extra wiper blade
Basic tools including a sharp knife
Duct tape
Rope
Snow Shovel
First Aid Kit
Flares
Extra sunglasses
Plastic grocery bags
Tarp
Portable Power pack
Batteries should be stored separately. If your flashlight doesn’t work, try warming up the batteries. Consider packing extra batteries.
Schedule a winter safety meeting(s) with all staff to review winter driving techniques. Where applicable, review with all operators and drivers on the proper method to install tire chains. Stress importance of avoiding excessive idling and the cost associated. Every 10 minutes of idling consumes between .10 to .25 liters of fuel.
Before setting out on the road, check the weather and road conditions. Make sure your cell phone is charged and you pack a car charger for the trip. Take along a liter of water. Make sure you pack your sunglasses. The glare from the snow is more intense in the winter. Allow for extra time in the event of bad weather. Remove all snow from your vehicle. Excessive snow and ice on your windows increases the width of your vehicles natural blind spot. Clean your head and tail lights that can be dulled by salt accumulation.
Be aware of changing conditions. Secondary roads and streets are often less maintained in terms of snow removal.
Be aware of black ice that can form during rain showers where the air temperature is above the freezing point, but the road temperature is below.
Overpasses and bridges are natural locations for water to accumulate and freeze. They also freeze quicker than roads. Be extra aware when approaching overpasses and bridges - especially when roads are wet, and when it’s cold, and at night when visibility is limited. Debris from high winds or snow laden branches is always a potential hazard to be aware of. Never use cruise control on wet or icy roads. Doing so can cause the vehicle to spin its wheels and lose traction with the road.
Always drive defensively, especially through residential areas. Watch for walkers, joggers, and cyclists. With shorter days, children will often be on the move in darkness on their way to and from school. Early dawn and late dusk can be an especially difficult time of day in terms of visibility.
Slow down, wear your seat belt, and give yourself extra distance between you and the car in front of you.
Regularly inspect and maintain your fleet throughout the winter; cleaning it regularly and keeping it free of sand and salt accumulation.
To learn more about how Fleet Harmony Online Fleet Maintenance Software can help, or about our shipment tracking software, software design services including iSeries / AS400 go to www.fleetharmony.com.