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Driving Tips
Take some tips from driving
professionals
By Steve Wallace
Professional
drivers do all sorts of things that are mysterious to other drivers.
Each time I do an
assessment or enhanced driving session with professional drivers, I learn
something that affects my daily commute. Here are some examples.
One driver from the
oil-patch showed me why he always lines his right knee up with the middle of
the oil-darkened area in the travelled lane on the highway.
It gives him a
natural right-side offset. This simple action creates more room between a driver
and oncoming traffic. It makes it easier to escape to the shoulder when
threatened with a head-on crash, the most frequently fatal of all crashes.
My tire
professional told me to always have the tires with the better tread mounted on
the back wheels of a front-wheel-drive vehicle when you’re expecting to drive
in the rain.
The front tires
have the benefit of the engine weight over the front wheels. If the vehicle
loses contact with the road surface due to hydroplaning, it will be the back
tires that break loose first.
No professional
driver would be without convex mirrors. They reduce blind spots around trucks
of all sizes. Since I put them on our driving-school vehicles, we seldom check
the regular side-view mirrors.
Many companies in
the private sector and public agencies make such mirrors standard equipment on
every vehicle in the fleet.
The best trucker I
have ever had the privilege to accompany on a long-haul drive showed me how to
be much safer on the road by not using my brakes.
When climbing a hill,
he always remembered the gear he was in at the top of the hill. Upon the return
trip, he would crest the hill in the same gear prior to the descent.
The engine
compression held the vehicle back and braking was much less dramatic or
unnecessary.
The same trucker
could do a two-hour highway trip and never use his brakes, except to stop. It
forced him to look further down the road and be better prepared for hazardous
situations.
The pros will often
use their four-way flashers when climbing a hill. This action draws attention
to their slow-moving trucks and reduces the risk of a rear-end collision.
Many drive with
their headlights in the on position. This action activates the taillights. It
also reduces the likelihood of a rear-end collision and is an easy way to
identify the pros when they drive their own passenger vehicles. I often see
truckers travelling behind these lit-up vehicles in an unofficial convoy.
Most professional
drivers of pickup trucks equip them with deer whistles. These very inexpensive
whistles emit a sound that alerts deer to approaching vehicles.
The deer usually
move away from the roadway or freeze in their tracks. The whistles do not
function at speeds lower than 60 km/h, but given the number of deer around most
of our cities, I would highly recommend them.
Professional
drivers will often keep track of the number of vehicles they pass on a trip, as
well as the number that pass them. That way, they can tell if their average
speed is too slow or fast for the commute.
The ratio should
not be more than two-to-one either way. If it is, the vehicle becomes a focal
point and a crash is much more likely. If a driver is travelling too slowly or
too fast compared to other traffic, the hazard potential increases.
Take these tips
from the pros and incorporate them into your daily commute or next vacation
road trip, and see if they make a difference. Practice does make perfect.
Steve Wallace is
the owner of Wallace Driving School on Vancouver Island and in the Central
Interior of B.C. He is the former vice-president. of the Driving School
Association of the Americas and a certified B.C. teacher.
stevedwallace@shaw.ca
We Teach
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customer driven company suited to your needs.
Since
1976, Wallace Driving School has been teaching students of all ages
to drive The Wallace Way, with individualized lessons and
hands-on training.
Wallace
Driving School incorporates the latest technologies as well as patience and
personal attention to help get you, and keep you, in the driver’s seat.
Our
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| Long-haul truckers, like many professional drivers, employ a variety of tricks to make for safer driving, from using four-way flashers on long uphills to using engine braking on downhills |
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