Carriers See Need to Winterize Drivers
Many truckers can recall, as youngsters, the advice of their mothers to button up before heading outside into the cold weather. Such precautions are still warranted even though the youngsters are now adults, according to a fleet manager at Sather Trucking.
That includes preparing the driver for the physical discomforts of cold weather as well as adjusting driving techniques.
Southern-based drivers who are not accustomed to traveling in northern winters often have no concept of real cold temperatures and what such weather can do to roads, Wolterstorff says.
“When winter approaches, we need to winterize the driver as well as the truck,” says Bill Wolterstorff, who works at the truckload carrier in Round Lake, Minn.
“We tell our drivers, especially the young ones, ‘You need to think about winter and what you’ll have to do differently,’ ” says Wolterstorff, who is also chairman of The Maintenance Council of American Trucking Associations.
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