Whether you’re hauling a trailer or your family across the country, it’s easy to get excited for smooth summer travel once the weather is warm and the sun is shining—open roads, open windows.
But this time of year presents its own set of challenges for professional and casual drivers alike, as the start of May brings the beginning of the deadliest driving season of the year (through September).
Our anticipation of early ETAs and easy miles can quickly be put in check by construction, breakdowns, and extreme weather. So, when you’re planning for the road ahead, it’s worth taking a moment to refresh your memory on tips, best practices, and safe strategies for driving and arriving with all your pieces in place.
It helps to be prepared—physically, mentally, and mechanically.
d = rt
Not to get all algebraic on you… But, while distance may equal rate times time, the rate at which you travel and the time you take to do it can be affected by factors beyond your control—decreasing your rate and increasing the distance and time to reach your destination.
Map your route with a GPS-based travel app to give yourself an idea of the time it’ll take to get where you’re going and what delays you can expect along the way. Wherever there is construction and/or an accident you can see it plain as day and adjust your path in real time.
Even with the most meticulous planning, once you hit the road things can change quickly. Conditions can degrade from moment to moment and it’s always a great idea to anticipate and expect the unexpected to happen—the key to defensive driving.
Safety Is an Attitude
While traffic fatalities have been declining recently—the latest estimate for 2023 is more than 40k—drivers are at risk more frequently, racking up a 2.1% increase in total miles driven.
And when you factor in more than 2 million life-altering injuries happening each year, it’s clear that any improvement in compliance, good habits, and etiquette will have a profound effect on each of our lives.
No matter which mode of transportation you regularly use, please take a few minutes to brush up and read through the FMCSA’s tips for trucks and buses, passenger vehicles, as well as bicyclists and pedestrians.
As part of the overall Our Roads, Our Safety campaign, the FMCSA also offers valuable resources focusing on different elements of safe travel—speeding, distracted driving, work zones, seat belts, and health for drivers.
It’s Up to All of Us
Practicing road safety isn’t just a legal issue—it’s also a matter of respect and etiquette that is well worth being aware of because over the past decade, road rage related shooting incidents have surged over 400%!
Whether we are driving to make an on-time delivery or to have a great time at the beach—whatever the reason—we all deserve to arrive safely by being smart, taking care, and respectfully sharing the roads with each other.
Today, over the next few weeks, and throughout the year, we enthusiastically encourage you to read, print, post, and forward the valuable information in the links above—share it freely with your team, your teens, your partners, and your parents so that everyone arrives uneventfully!
