Have you ever gone to sleep only to wake up exhausted? Many people have trouble sleeping, and tow truck drivers are no exception. Not sleeping well can mean that you’re in for a rough day of being fatigued and tired. Fatigue can lead to drowsiness, moodiness, loss of energy, poor appetite, headaches, and difficulty concentrating and focusing. It’s not difficult to see why driving drowsy is dangerous for tow truck drivers. Driving while fatigued can impair your ability to operate your tow truck safely, so we have some tips for getting a good night’s sleep.
Tips
If you have a tow truck business, it’s important to do everything you can to make safety a priority. There’s enough risk associated with towing as it is, and some of these risks are things that we can’t control. However, there are ways that we can take simple steps to increase safety (and lower the chances of having to file an insurance claim.) That’s why we have a “Tips” section in our blog. We’re dedicated to helping tow truck businesses just like yours stay as safe as possible. We want to do everything we can to help you lower your risks, and that includes passing on safety advice and tips.
The articles below discuss some safety advice for drivers and owners of tow truck and wrecker businesses. By taking the time to discuss safety at work and creating safety policies, you can help protect your drivers when they hit the road.
What you need to know about tow truck ergonomics and its benefits
When you spend the better part of a day behind the wheel of a tow truck, it’s important to be comfortable. Being comfortable reduces the chance of injury and muscle strain. One way to ensure that you’re comfortable is to be aware of tow truck ergonomics. Ergonomics is basically adjusting the workplace to the body to put less strain on joints, muscles, and bones. The goal is to make your tow truck or wrecker as ergonomic as possible to reduce the likelihood of getting hurt or experiencing soreness. Neck pain, back pain, sore muscles and joints, and carpal tunnel can all result from poor ergonomics, and if you’re in pain, your full attention isn’t on the road and you’re a distracted driver – although unintentionally so. We’ve got some tips to help you put some ergonomics in place in your workstation.
How to reduce driver turnover at your tow truck business
The tow truck industry always seems to be changing. Being in the towing business forces you to adapt to new conditions within your company. One of the things that always seems to be changing in towing is the people working alongside you. It can be hard to keep drivers at your business sometimes.
Having a secure and stable employee base is important to any business, but especially a tow truck business, where experience and knowledge are key. The effect of drivers on tow truck insurance rates is significant. We’ve got some tips to help you retain the hardworking drivers that work for your wrecker business. You don’t want to say goodbye to them, do you?
Six tips to help tow truck drivers stay safe on unfamiliar roadways
Towing is always an adventure. There are always new challenges and hurdles to overcome. Now, your mind might immediately go to the direct challenges of the towing job – namely, attaching the damaged car to the wrecker. But there’s an obstacle that comes up even before you arrive on the scene. And that’s finding where to go in the first place. As a tow truck driver, you’re often required to go to places and drive on roads that you’ve never seen before. Driving on unfamiliar roadways presents risks because part of your mind is set on trying to get your bearings and not get lost. We’ve got some tips to help you handle driving in areas and on roads that you don’t know.
The dangers of driving drowsy when operating a tow truck
According to the FMCSA, about 13% of CMV drivers were fatigued at the time that they had a crash. (This from the Large Truck Crash Causation Study.) It’s especially important to raise awareness of this issue among tow truck drivers because commercial vehicle drivers are among those who are most vulnerable to drowsy driving. Sleep is not always a choice – sometimes the body takes over and decides that nap time is now. If you’re driving, though, falling asleep for even seconds and then jolting awake can have catastrophic consequences.
Pro tips to save money on your tow truck insurance
Tow truck insurance isn’t cheap, we’re not going to lie. It can get pricey, especially depending on where your business is located and how many trucks you have. There are a lot of factors that play into your tow truck insurance rates, but we have some pro tips that will help you save on your premiums. You know that you need insurance to protect your business, your drivers, and your tow trucks, but there’s no reason that you can’t save yourself some cash while you’re at it.
Six simple ways to improve safety at your tow truck business
When you drive tow trucks and haul other people’s cars, you know how important it is to be careful and safe. You’ve got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, but there are some ways that your company can work on being as safe as possible. Even if you have a good safety record, with few accidents or other incidents, it’s important to do everything you can to cement that commitment to safety.
10 tips for staying safe while driving at night (don’t let the dark get you down)
Tow truck drivers work very odd hours. It’s just a fact of life that cars like to break down at the most inconvenient times, including in the dead of night. If you’re involved in the towing industry, chances are you’ve had your fair share of middle-of-the-night shifts. Rescuing stranded drivers and their cars is a full-time job, emphasis on the full-time.
But driving at night can be very dangerous. Conditions after the sun goes down get treacherous. It’s hard to see hazards that are close to the road, and we can’t see as far ahead of us as we’d like. Plus when it’s dark our bodies are programmed to sleep. Fatigue is another obstacle to contend with.
We’ve put together some tips to help you be safe while driving at night. There are some things you can do to face the dark and keep yourself and other drivers safer.