Truck Driver Insurance and Safety Tips

Truck driving is many times more hazardous than driving a car for obvious reasons and as a result your truck insurance can be a significant chunk of your running costs.

Keeping this cost to an absolute minimum then is imperative if you are to run a profitable truck business and we all know the best way of keeping any insurance premium down – don’t have an accident or claim!

It is for this reason that the truck insurance experts at Isis Insurance have compiled this safety advice special to help you stay out of trouble while driving on UK roads.

The first point to make is to drive your truck with your full attention. It may be easy to pick up your mobile on those long, lonely drives, but do so and you massively increase the chances of a collision; and if you hit a car the chances are that it won’t be you injured or killed, but the person you hit and you must live the rest of your life knowing that.

A study in the USA proved that 78% of car truck collisions resulted in the car driver being injured or killed and that it was caused by unsafe driving, with the driver either failing to stop at lights, talking on the phone or speeding.

Tailgating is also a dangerous practice and quite often this can be the cause of jack-knifing, as drivers brake hard and the truck trailer tries to overtake you, causing a particularly bad accident.

Other things to think about when truck driving includes:

• Refrain from erratic or overcorrecting steering
• Gradually reduce speed if your truck veers from the road
• Maintain adequate tire pressure
• Avoid overloading your truck
• Use caution on rural roads

None of this is rocket science but it is amazing how many drivers forget about these things and put themselves, their truck and then their truck insurance no claims in danger. If you feel you may be a little out of practice why not consider a refresher course on safe driving. It is surprising just how much you can forget!

For more help and advice on safe truck driving, or keeping your truck insurance premiums down talk to the Isis Insurance experts on 01625 539 656.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 12:51 pm and is filed under HGV (Haulage/Truck). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.