As a professional driver please share your experience with your friends and family to ensure that they are aware of the dangers of driving in these conditions. Ask that they only travel if is absolutely necessary.
1. Turn on your lights, in excessive down pours turn on fog lights front and rear. Turn off fog lights as soon as it is safe to do so.
2. Cut back road speed to reduce excessive spray. Drivers of smaller vehicles can very quickly be effected by the spray, causing them to lose control of their vehicle.
3. Extend braking distances to compensate for a reduction in road surface grip,
4. Reduce engine power when accelerating on roundabouts and when cornering.
5. Cruise control should be limited in very wet conditions.
6. Endurance brakes should be switched off in these conditions.
7. Driving through flooded areas will reduce the effectiveness of your brakes so it is important to apply brakes when leaving the flood to assist in drying out the brake linings and getting excessive water out of brake drums.
8. Hydroplaning is where a vehicle traveling over a very wet road surface ends up traveling on water as the tyres cannot get rid of the water between the tyre and the road surface. Inexperienced drivers will find themselves in this situation and their immediate reaction is to do what is the last thing they should do. They brake and vehicle will more than lightly go into a spin.
8. Keep your distance from other vehicles in front and those that are passing you. If you are being overtaken reduce speed and let them away. The further the better.
9. Reduce your speed to allow for the unexpected. It’s not you that may cause the problem but another less experienced driver.
10. In the event of a breakdown only exit your cab if it is safe to do so.
11. Always check that your vehicle is in road worthy condition. You will have done your pretrip walk-around however as professional drivers you will be aware that road noise is considerably higher when the road is wet. It is advisable to stop at a safe place and check load security and tyre condition.