Stay Safe by Planning Your Trip

Trip planning is the key to safe and stress free winter truck driving.  Don’t wait until the winter months to start planning for winter.  What does this mean?  It means that when the weather is good, take notes on where the chain up and chain off places are.  Build a library of safe places to park so you have alternatives when your planned stop does not pan out.  How many of us have had the experience of aiming for that rest area only to find that it is closed?  That is all fine in fair weather but when the blizzard hits we better have a plan B to get to our next safe place.

A big part of trip planning in the winter is monitoring the weather.  There are many sources for weather: the XM radio, the Weather Channel (usually on at the truck stops), the Internet (from our smartphone or Wi-Fi), 511 from the not-so-smart phones, and our old friend – the robotic voice of NOAA weather.  Lastly, there is the old school method of predicting the weather – using the CB to get information about what the conditions are ahead.

Take out your map, your library of safe places to park, and the weather information you gathered and plan your trip.  Plan it so that you are going over the passes when the snow has melted (or at least after the plows have had a chance to work the road a bit).  In bad weather, calculate your speed at 25mph.  If you overestimate your speed you may run out of your driving hours or hit your 14 before you can get to a safe place.  Remember that the “extra two hours of driving for unforeseen traffic or weather” only applies if it is unforeseen – you cannot tell DOT that you did not see the winter storm coming when it has been broadcast by every news report and DOT traffic sign.