You knew it was coming. Maybe you took steps to prepare. But now winter gales are hitting the highways hard. Snow and ice have replaced asphalt. Still, there are schedules to meet and freight to deliver.
Teach your drivers: the keys to safe winter driving are patience and planning. Patience means allowing more time; accepting that road speeds will be lower. It means not taking risks to make up lost time. It involves watching for drivers who do not know how to handle winter road conditions and leaving more space ahead and behind the truck, because stopping distances increase on wet and icy pavements. And, yes, it means helping the customer understand that a safe arrival is your primary goal.
Planning means having alternatives ready when winter conditions require a different course of action. It means knowing the alternate routes that will safely reach your destination. It requires researching alternate exits in advance if your usual one is blocked by drifting snow or other road hazard and having alternate parking locations in mind if your planned stop is full.
Patience and Planning can easily be put to the test in winter. Localized conditions may not appear on your company’s weather report or on your driver’s cell phone weather app, and conditions themselves can change quickly.
Fortunately, you do have a friend out there – the snowplow driver.
Snowplows. Snowplow drivers by definition work in the worst winter conditions, with the most limited visibility. Have your drivers give them space, distance, and, most of all, patience to do their job.
The space is needed because snowplows often are rigged with “wing” blades, extending 10’-12’ – the equivalent of a full traffic lane – to the side. Those blades often have blinking warning lights at their tips… but in blowing snow conditions those warning lights may be obscured. The snowplow may also be longer than anticipated, as front blades extend ahead of the cab.
Snowplows deserve distance, as well. The snow they kick up can blind vehicles following too close. The plowing can also eject pieces of ice, which can crack windshields. Many snowplows or trucks accompanying the plow lay down sand or deicer. Follow too close and those substances may blur your driver’s windows and mirrors.
Snowplows typically travel at about 35 mph to efficiently move the snow. Often, they work in teams, with other plows or trucks, taking one section of a road at a time. So, your drivers won’t be delayed too long in letting the plow or team finish its road section. Passing a snowplow is not generally recommended.
The snowplow driver wants you to be safe – that’s why he is out there. As he would tell you: “Ahead is the problem. Behind [the plow] is the solution.”
Use Patience and Planning, and respect for the snowplow driver, to stay alive in the dead of winter.