Safety Tips on Heavy Haulage Truck Driving
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Wherever you go, there is nothing more important than observing road safety. As a matter of fact, many logistic, haulage and truck companies, as well as their drivers take this matter very seriously.
Over the years, heavy vehicle driving safety has greatly improved. And there are a multitude of reasons for this, which include well-designed roads, model of the vehicle, speed limitation, and a lot more. However, the majority of the improvement is credited to enhanced safety policies and awareness.
Here are some safety tips that helped improve today’s overall heavy vehicle driving safety:
Training for Defensive Driving
It is essential that every driver must know how to deal with all sorts of problems and avoid them before they could even happen. Each one must be aware of their responsibilities on the road and the safest possible ways to deal with any road accident. By sending every driver to training sessions, any bad driving habits will be eliminated.
Regular Inspections and Maintenance
In order to stay safe, it is essential to keep your vehicle fleet in a great working order. With regular inspections and maintenance, you can easily determine which specific aspects of the vehicle must be taken care of, and thus, avoid any unwanted incidents.
Choosing the Right Heavy Equipment Trailer
When choosing a trailer, the load or the equipment must be taken into account. You can’t just choose a trailer on a whim. For the compliance of local requirements and to promote safety, you need to pick the best trailer.
- Flatbed Trailer
A flatbed hauling trailer is undeniably among the most common trailers. This is available in various capacities and sizes, hence allowing easy loading and unloading of equipment up to 48,000 pounds. - Towing Trailer
When transporting heavy loads onto locations with short distances, a towing trailer is your best choice. But be sure to secure its chains and locks properly before you go on driving. - Special Trailers
For the transportation of massive and oversized equipment such as heavy machinery, a special trailer is often required since they can be modified to practically suit your heavy transport requirements. - Flat Rack Trailer
The flat rack container is also one popular option. This is more or less similar to a flatbed truck, only that the equipment will be placed on top of the truck, and then loaded onto a transport vessel. The flat rack container is capable of holding loads of up to 88,000 pounds.
Comply by the Basic Requirements
If you are transporting a heavy trailer, you are required by law to confine the load and ensure it won’t cause any accidents and injuries on the road. Large items must be bind using ropes, while smaller ones must be kept inside boxes.
Use Cargo Nets
Towing equipment like chainsaws, blowers, and lawn mowers can be safely transported using cargo nets and rope. Tie this all over them and see to it that it won’t move around during the travel. For heavy-duty equipment, such as grinders and rotary hoes, you will have to use tie-downs.
Use Tool Racks
Tool racks can be useful in the shipment process, especially when you are transporting garden and hand tools. This can be installed at the side or front of the trailer so as to secure brooms, rakes, or shovels. But when doing so, make certain the weight is balanced.
Check the Weather Regularly
The weather can greatly affect driving conditions. Before you set forth on the road, make sure you are aware of the current weather forecast. If the weather has gone bad, it is best to reduce your driving speed about 10 miles per hour.
And lastly, always remember that overloading can get any driver into almost all sorts of trouble. So, before you hit the road, review these safety tips on heavy haulage truck driving and make a difference.
I like that you explain how it’s important for heavy haulage drivers to know how to handle various problems and prevent them from even happening. If someone requires heavy haulage services, it might be a good idea to outsource to a company that specializes in such work. This could ensure that the drivers have the proper training and skills to handle the vehicles and situations as well as ensure that the right vehicles and equipment is used.
I like how you mentioned that having regular maintenance and inspections on your fleet of vehicles is a key thing to make sure that you’re staying safe. My own brother is becoming a truck driver and I definitely want him to stay safe out on the roads. So I’ll make sure to tell him to keep his maintenance and permits up to date, especially if he drives an oversize truck.
Actually, all drivers should have undergone a defensive driving training before giving them the license to be able to drive on the road. This is for them to know what and how they should handle all sorts of problem that they might encounter on the road and for them to possibly avoid a serious accident that could cost them their lives and other people’s lives.
I appreciate the information on heavy haulage safety. I agree that it is important to have regular inspections and maintenance, this can prevent many other problems that may happen. I will be sure to keep these in mind if I ever have to drive heavy haulage.
I appreciate your tip to use tool racks when transporting heavy equipment, particularly garden and hand tools. I wonder if companies you can hire to transport equipment for you have trucks that are equipped with tool racks and other hardware to protect your equipment from damage? Thanks for the tips, I’ll be sure to pass them along the next time someone I know is transporting heavy equipment.
Thanks for Shared Safety Tips for Truck
Critical to staying safe is keeping the fleet in perfect working order. Braking systems, steering systems, transmission, wheel bearings and tyres are just some of the things than can cause catastrophic accidents if they fail, so regular maintenance of the entire vehicle is the best policy.
I agree that a very important part of maintaining heavy trucks it to have regular inspection and maintenance. I am planning on hiring dump truck services and I appreciate the information you have provided. I will make sure that whoever I hire has trucks in good working order, Thank you for the advice.
Thanks so much for sharing these safety tips for heavy haulage truck drivers and operators. I had no idea that there were so many different types of trailers available for these trucks. The only one that I knew about was the flatbed one. However, it’s pretty awesome that there are trailers that can carry up to 44 tons of stuff!
I don’t think I ever thought much about hauling large loads until my cousin got into the business and started to tell me about it. I will have to tell him about some of the tips, especially about driving defensively, since you would not be able to respond as fast. I have a lot of respect for heavy machinery movers now, since my cousin started doing it