Truck Driving School: How to Position Your Vehicle on the Road – the right way
Want to drive seamlessly and reach your destination safely?
Lane Positioning is the placement of your truck vehicle whether you are on the left side, right side or centre of a lane. Proper lane positioning is an important part of driving to ensure your safety and well-being. As a truck driver, it can help you in many ways. It will enable other motorists to determine what you are going to do and will increase their road visibility.
Improper lane positioning can result in serious accidents and injury to other people. Sometimes, truckers are not able to position themselves properly. There will be times where you will have to go outside of your lane such as narrow bridges or tight corners.
The Gold Coast Bulletin reported that “an investigation has been launched into the smash in which a truck clipped a police car at Helensvale at about 11.25am.” (Emery et al., Gold Coast Bulletin Website) Many people reacted saying that M1 is perfectly fine and it is just because of the irresponsible drivers who are often reckless.
The key thing we can learn from this incident at this early stage is the importance of lane positioning when driving a truck. Trucks are substantially wider than the vast majority of cars yet they have to keep in the same size lane as a car does. Thus lane positions become an important area of focus for truck drivers.
There are also some reasons why truck drivers cannot do the correct lane positioning. These may include the following:
- Inclement Weather and Poor Road Visibility. Thus, making it hard for truck drivers to see the lane, centre lines and shoulder
- Lack of Attention
- Lack of Experience
- Road Hazards
- Engine Problems or Mechanical Failure
- Drunk/Reckless Driving
- Over speeding
- Lack of mirror usage
As a Truck Driving School, it is our job to provide useful solutions and helpful advices to avoid any accidents caused by this improper lane positioning.
Burleigh Driver Training School listed several tips on how make sure you keep to your lane and to drive safely:
- Our Truck Driving School suggests to scan your mirrors every 10 to 15 sec checking all your mirrors. This allows you to check that your vehicle is still in the lane.
- If you are going turn the steering wheel check the mirror in the direction you are going to turn prior to making the turn.
- While turning keep checking your mirrors on a regular basis, to make sure you are in your lane.
- Scan ahead looking for obstacles that are impeding into your lane. This may require you to move to one side of your lane or even change lanes to avoid the obstacle. Examples include:
- Council Buses dropping off and picking up.
- Cars parked on the side of the road with the potential for the door to open.
- Trees growing over the road as you are now in a higher vehicle than a car.
- Broken down cars or in the case referred to above Police Cars.
- Power Poles and signs.
- In a cab over truck it is more difficult to judge your lane position in while driving than a car is or bonneted truck. This is because you have no reference point in front of you to line up with the lane markings. This will require greater attention while driving particularly while driving.
- Don’t get distracted or loose concentration. For example: Looking at your mobile phone, Talking on the phone,Looking at the GPS, and Changing a radio station.
Following these helpful tips from our truck driving school will help keep you safe from any vehicle collisions. You can also create more space between your truck vehicle and other drivers whom you share the road with.
Photo by: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vm2827/
