Truck safety is not only important for your well-being as a truck driver, but you can also impact the health of other drivers on the road. Your safety on the road directly impacts other motorists and your bottom line.
Since this is the case, driving safely and cautiously is especially important, especially when hauling larger loads. The department of labor has stated that truck driving is one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States of America.
On average 130,000 people a year suffer from trucking related accidents and the trucking field has one of the highest fatality results from work on the job among any industry.
Due to the nature of the job and the risk associated with trucking, you must ensure you are always safe. At Verduyn Tarps, we highly value safety and want to ensure our customers remain safe. We have a variety of products available to keep our customers safe!
Additionally, we have been in the industry for over thirty-five years, so we understand the dangers that are related to trucking. That said, in the blog below we will go over safety tips and highlight why safety is extremely important in the field.
Thoroughly Inspect your Truck and Trailer to Ensure It Is Road Safe
Doing regular truck check-ups is especially important for truck safety, and to keep yourself safe as well as other drivers on the road. It is important to inspect all areas of your truck to make sure everything is up to par and there are no safety concerns surrounding your truck.
CVSA (Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance) did a commercial vehicle inspection and enforcement initiative, where they ran checks on 59,429 trucks in USA and Canada. They conducted level I to level V checks and when approved they would get a CVSA sticker on their truck.
However not every truck was considered up to par as 11,270 vehicles were placed out of service, which was 19% of vehicles that were out of service.
The CVSA inspected many things on the trucks and of those deemed out of service, the most common violations were brake systems, tires, and defective service brakes.
This further highlights why it is so important to thoroughly check your truck for any server or safety issues to ensure that your truck is road safe, or the CVSA will deem it out of service.
The next CVSA international road check is scheduled for May 14th –16th, 2024, but happens every spring.
So before attending this safety check, ensure that every aspect of your truck has been inspected and any corrections made to it to ensure your vehicle is safe for driving.
Ensure You Have the Proper Equipment (straps, chains, tarps)
As a truck driver it is especially important to have the proper equipment needed for proper truck safety so that you remain safe on the road. This is especially true when you are transporting any product because you must make sure that whatever goods or products you are hauling are safely secured.
If you are transporting an open container it is exposed to less desirable conditions such as rain snow, dust win heat. They must not be damaged by any conditions, or the purpose of the journey is no longer that what you are delivering has been damaged or altered.
The aim is to carry and deliver the load safely.
To ensure this you can make sure you have the proper covering for your load which can include getting a tarp for your truck.
Also make sure you have straps and that you’ve securely tied down the load for safe transportation.
Why is tying down your cargo important for truck safety?
Tying down cargo on your flatbed is so important for truck safety for several reasons.
By properly tying down your cargo, it will help prevent your load from shifting or falling off your flatbed during transit. This will obviously prevent accidents or damage to your cargo/ property, and most importantly it will prevent injuries to others.
There is also a legal component to securing your cargo to your flatbed. IT IS THE LAW. Regulations require that your cargo be secured properly to prevent accidents, and failure to comply will result in fines.
Properly secured cargo reduces the risk of damage to your cargo during transit. Nothing can be worse than showing up to your customer with their cargo damaged
Cargo loss incidents also mean costs relating to Lost profits and Loss of business and reputation.
Most importantly, tying down cargo on your flatbed is critical for the safety of others and yourself.
Conclusion
Safety is the most important thing to consider for those who drive commercial vehicles or drive trucks for long hauling companies. This is because the way they drive also impacts the other motorists on the road.
A truck’s condition plays a role in how safe it is for other cars on the road. This is because if something is not secured properly it could become a hazard for other drivers.
Also, drivers also need to inspect their truck thoroughly to make sure all the important parts of their trucks, including brakes, function properly.
Additionally, to ensure safety, drivers need to make sure they are carrying the proper equipment on their truck such as straps and chains, and to use them to keep the cargo being hauled tightly secured to their truck so there are no incidents.
Remember, trucking is an extremely dangerous field, and it is important to thoroughly inspect your truck and guarantee you have the equipment needed to ensure that you are safe and keep other motorists protected.
Contact us for more information, and our experts will help you determine how you can maximize your safety on the road.
References Used
Policy Advice: Truck Accident Statistics (2021 Edition) | Policy Advice | Policy Advice
CVSA: CVSA Releases 2022 International Road check Results
CVSA: International Road check – CVSA – Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
