Driving a large vehicle such as a truck can be tough even if the day is perfect and there’s not a car in sight on the highway for miles on end. 

Now, add a bit of rough weather and some heavy traffic into the mixture and the driving experience can get pretty hectic as well as stressful for the person behind the wheel. 

Not to mention that the goods need to be at their destination within a certain deadline. 

Of course, not all is bleak for the trucker nowadays, as the rapidly-advancing automotive technology brings new safety features to modern-day trucks every year. 

At Volvo, for example, they’ve come up with some pretty ingenious ways to cut short the braking distances of trucks with heavy rigs. Besides, we’ve all seen that Jean-Claude Van Damme truck commercial where he does a split balancing on two moving trucks, so not much needs to be said about the current state of truck technology. 

Still, even with the most high-tech gadgets and safety features onboard your truck, winter conditions can be pretty unforgiving and there’s little room for errors. 

In this article, we’re going to offer you some driving tips in winter conditions, so you can prepare yourself for the road a bit better and also have a clearer idea of what to do once you’ve set off. 

Here’s the deal. 

Check Your Vehicle Before Setting Off 

While this may seem like a no-brainer, relying too heavily on the quality of make of the new generation of trucks would be a risky approach to commencing a journey during the winter. 

So, every time before you set off on a novel journey, make sure to check your tires, the state of your engine, as well as all the high-tech systems you have on board such as sat-nav or those seat-warming heaters, for example. 

You don’t want to find yourself in the middle of nowhere only to discover your in-cabin heating’s gone awry. 

Drive at Lower Speed 

Even though the weather conditions may be rough, it’s not safe to assume that the traffic on highways will be lighter during the winter months.

Many people will be going out of town for the winter holidays, which often means you could encounter an unexpected traffic jam. What’s more, even if the traffic isn’t as heavy as it tends to be during the warmer months, the rough road conditions during the winter can also cause some of these jams. 

Heavy snowfall, for example, can lock down entire portions of the highway at times. 

If this happens, you don’t want to catch yourself speeding into an idle line of cars and trucks that can’t budge until the weather clears up. 

So, the safe thing to do during the winter is to drive at lower speeds than usual. This will probably mean it will take you longer to get where you’re headed, but it will also mean you’ll experience fewer problems along the way. 

Mind the Spacing 

… between your vehicle and the vehicles in front of you and to the side of you. (You can’t do much about the ones behind you, of course.) 

As the conditions on the road get rougher and the road surface becomes slippery, the usual braking distance of your vehicle will no longer be relevant. 

So, to prevent ramming into the back of the vehicle in front of you in case you need to apply brakes quickly, maintain a safe distance, so you have plenty of room to work with. 

The spacing between vehicles on the road is quite important generally speaking, but even more so during the winter, so any driving school training drivers for an mr licence will teach you this, too. 

Equip Your Truck with Powerful Lights 

… and make sure that whatever lighting configuration you’ve picked up is road-legal. (Because not all types of headlights can be fitted on vehicles.) 

Other than the cold and the slippery roads, winter driving also means reduced visibility. 

To prevent being forced to drive extra slowly because you can’t see anything out of your cabin, make sure your truck is well-equipped with suitable headlights, as well as other lighting signalization. 

To be on the safe side, it’s always a good idea to have a couple of spare bulbs in your toolkit, too, because you never know when a headlight is going to decide to die on you. 

All things considered, driving during the winter can be challenging for any driver – even for the folks with snowmobiles and customized vehicles for winter conditions. For truckers, the challenges are even bigger. 

That said, with proper preparation and responsible behavior on the road, you can dramatically reduce the chance of experiencing an accident or some other sort of trouble on the road.