Even though the days are getting slowly longer, and the weather better – in the northern hemisphere at least – most of us are still lamenting being in the middle of yet another winter, and are rightfully concerned about the effect that conditions can have on the roads and our vehicles, especially if the vehicle concerned is used for work purposes or worse isn’t owned by you at all, but leased from your employer.
For areas where heavy snow and ice on the roads is likely, tyre socks are ideal for keeping vehicles on the road, especially those with heavy or particularly valuable loads. In many Scandinavian countries they’re required by law through a certain period of the year, but in countries which also encounter some extreme weather during the winter like Germany and the UK, they are often overlooked, despite being an easier to fit and of course a cheaper alternative to tyre chains.
Another way to keep vehicles for work purposes safe on unpredictable roads is GPS vehicle tracking, and is an option which isn’t always the first to come to mind. Particularly effective if used for large number of vehicles, vehicle tracking can help with bad conditions in two ways. Firstly, any vehicles that break down or worse are involved in a collision, can be sent recovery help almost instantly with the aid of real-time mapping and alerts for certain events i.e. unscheduled stops, and also many systems have an inbuilt communication system whereby communication with HQ is both fast and more safe than using mobile phones on the road.
As the vast majority of traffic incidents are caused by human error, possible the most important thing to remember during winter is to temper your driving to make sure that journeys are as safe as possible. Extra distance should be left between vehicles, particularly on fast moving motorways, speed on turns should be lowered, and in general throughout the winter speeds should be significantly reduced.