Snow And Ice Driving

During the wintery months I always drive slower then the speed limit if the roads and shoulders aren't 100%cleared.All it takes is one wrong move to turn into a castastophy.

 

Snow and ice are rarely unforseen and sneak up on you...Following the weather should be a part of your routine this time of year and you should be route planning appropriately...Especially today with the many FREE apps available...

One I use is MyRadar for instant nationwide doppler radar that knows where I am...It's helped me make better routing decisions more than once...One quick touch and it's up, no other touches needed to instantly see what's around me, then I can zoom in or out as I like...And it's free...

I wouldn't even accept a load without first checking conditions between here and there, how can I possibly make best decision AND COMMITMENT TO BEING ONTIME if I don't look at all available information?...Blaming weather later is lame and shows a lack of foresight and due diligence...

If I see it's going to be around 6" or more at my destination and still falling with more expected accumulation at my scheduled arrival time, I'll ask for something else...If there's anytime for the area to get cleaned up, I'm game but I'm not going to purposely drive into a scenario I KNOW will create downtime when I can avoid it with another load...

I've also never worked for a company that said "take that or sit" so I can't relate to that type of treatment...With one company I did have to wait 30 days before I could refuse a load, but that was fine, it was April.

 

More likely than not you'll have to do some amount of driving in bad weather. I go slow about 30 mph usually,avoid lane changes,using brakes too much,andgetting too close to somebody else. Typically you can drive out of it eventually.Most bosses(for some reason or another) have never even looked inside of, or even been in the drivers seat of a truck.They're probably eating a Monster Roast Beef sandwich from Arby's or at home watching the Simpsons when you call them with your tale of woe.Point is live to drive another day,if you cant drive Safely in it(you can tell ) pull off to the truck stop wait a while. Often times road conditions change ridiculously fast. Like mountain passes can go from shut down,to chains required tochains advised to no restrictions in 2 to 4 hrs or less.Once they chemically treat it and plow it 100% difference. Your captain of the ship your call. Besides Werner needs drivers too badly to can you.JMO

 

All depends where you run I guess. I'd have 6 to 8 months off a year if I didn't drive in snow.

 

OP lives in CO... My guess is he's inexperienced in driving a big truck in the winter but you can't live in CO and NOT see snow at least some of the year.

 

That is what I was thinking he is like me. I have years driving in snow & ice here in New England and even pulled 3000 lb trailer in a snow storm from CT to VT but have never driven a T/T in bad weather, other than heavy rain storms and can tell you empty they don't like to stop all too well.

Come my time I will take it slow and if I feel it is too bad I will park it. If boss starts "yelling" I will tell him to come get the truck to finish the route and then tell me how bad it is.

Clint Eastwood - A man has got to know his limitations!
Dave ----

 

I think most of the people have answered your question correctly. What I haven't seen posted, I could have missed it, but I feel is an important part of this question. Do you feel safe? Do you know how your rig handles on snow? Ice is a situation that you can only guess on and your only lucky if you don't screw up. I don't drive on ice any further than I need to safely get off the highway. I can tell you that 27 years ago when I was a rookie driver I didn't feel as comfortable on the snow as I do today. Experience is the only way you will ever get comfortable driving on snow, but even experienced drivers can screw up. I can "usually" feel the traction that my rig has and this helps to decide my speed, which can change at any time. Keep your following distance up and when you feel it is not safe to drive, stop because the responsibility of your rig operating safely is up to you and you alone. Some employers may tell you to keep going when you don't feel safe and you will have to decide how you will handle this. I would hope Werner and every other company wants to get their load delivered, but they also don't want their rig running over a carload of kids either because they forced their driver to drive when he/she didn't feel safe. You have to have a whole lot of luck in this job to get the experience you need to know when you should park it and when you should stay out keep on truckin! We have all been lucky at some point in our careers when something bad could have happened, but thank God it didn't.

 

View attachment 76582 View attachment 76583 Just take is slow and easy. Been there, done it, got the tee shirt.

 

I pretty much can drive in anything except I have a low tolerance for ice and high winds. Fortunately, we don't get ice too much or often where I drive. But I usually bail out early not because of the weather or raod conditions but because of the diminishing availability of parking at the truckstops.

 

Good question Brandon. I am sure you will get good advice based on driver's personal experiences. Here is my personal experience.

I promise one day you will call Dispatch and tell them you want to shut down due to snow/ice. Your dispatch will say " Well, Bill and Joe made it through there." Sometimes the sun comes out in the afternoon and there is a small window, say 3 to 4 pm, where the roads are passible. But at night they tend to freeze up again. Don't be afraid to tell your Dispatch that the roads have re-freezed.

The heavier the load you are hauling, the better off you are. If you are hauling 40K lbs or more you will get better traction than a 20k lb load. 10k lbs or less, is much riskier. Running with an empty trailer is very risky. No traction.

Sometimes you may be out there at night going about 35 mph, and decide you would rather pull off somewhere and not drive. Many times the safest thing to do is to keep going. Because, you will see more drivers exit off the big road to a rest area or a truck stop only to find out the exit ramps are a solid sheet of ice. This is due to no traffic volume on the ramps, and this will cause you to lose traction and slide off in the ditch. And if you are lucky enough to negotiate the exit ramp, the truck stops and rest areas will be a landmine of stuck and jackknifed tractor trailers who will block you from going anywhere. And if the empty truck in front of you ain't going no where, you ain't going no where.

Watch out for bridges and over passes. They ice up first and thaw out last.

Run a CB. You will hear a lot of horror stories on the CB during a snow/ice storm. Try to filter out the good info from the bad. I have made my best time leaving a truck stop at midnight, when 90% of trucks and cars aren't on the road. It makes it a lot easier.

I run my axle locks in snow/ice whenever I feel like it at any speed I want to.

Just my two cents.