When the going gets tough and harsh winter conditions strike, the interaction between the driver and the vehicle is put to the test.
In these tough conditions, good driving performance is more than relying upon on the vehicle or it's saftey systems. Rather, it’s about instantly adapting your mindset and behavior in order to do the job effectively – in the safest way possible.
When purchasing a new vehicle, 4x4 is an option to consider. No wonder, it’s a familiar and well-tried solution with good features for safer driving – but it’s easy to ignore its weaknesses believing there’s no better alternative.However, when thinking about situations where traction is crucial for your operations, you may conclude that 4x4 is not the perfect solution, but rather a compromise.
It comes every year, but it surprises us every time and often poses severe problems – of course we are talking about the winter.
Everyone involved in the transportation industry knows that a lack of road maintenance and poorly equipped trucks can cause major problems and increased costs. We cannot influence the weather but we can adapt our business to the weather and to the slippery conditions.
Properly equipped vehicles adapted to different weather conditions and recommendations or laws may be crucial to ensuring that the shipment can be delivered as agreed. Many countries also have legal requirements for both winter tires and snow chains.
School bus drivers are our heros
At Onspot, we have a lot of respect for school bus drivers. Taking the responsibility of safely transporting dozens of children is no small task. We spend a lot of time make sure our products are safe and dependable for these important drivers.
We know there are some big differences between a school bus driver’s work environment and that of other commercial operators. The school bus driver is not working alone in the cab, they are inside the bus filled with chatting and laughing kids. They may not be delivering goods to impatient customers, but are instead carrying our society’s most valuable asset– children. This alone is a stressful thought for any driver.
Transport enables prosperity
A transport stoppage for just a few days is enough for large parts of our society to come to a sudden halt. Despite this, the challenges facing the transportation and logistics industries have never been so great as they are now. Lower rates, increased competition, bigger forwarders, a shortage of drivers, tighter requirements for safety and quality certification, and requirements for clean, climate-friendly transport are just some of the challenges that contractors themselves describe as obstacles to good profitability and productivity.
More than half of transportation firms in the USA and Europe have problems with profitability. How can contractors adapt their operations to the challenges they face while also achieving profitability for their own companies?
The fact that schedules and deadlines are critical for transport operations is not news. Missed deadlines could mean profit loss and even lost contracts but may also result in causing a bad reputation for the company. The professional driver is well aware of this and knows how to keep up their schedule. However, missed deadlines may occur due to instances beyond the control of even the best drivers. There are different ways to deal with the possibilities of these unfortunate circumstances.
Why response time must be reduced
For rescue operations ‘response time’ is one of the measures for effectiveness. In emergency situations response time should be as short as possible as this could be crucial for saving lives or properties at danger. Accordingly, much effort is put into reducing response times. But actually, what is response time?
Response time is a sum of parts
The total response time could be split into three clearly different phases:
It’s quite obvious that the potential for reducing response time will differ considerably depending on what phase we’re looking at.