Wet roads spell danger for van drivers

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of the rain. I don’t like driving with the windscreen wipers squeaking up and down and when the wind gets up, if you’re in a high sided van, then driving can be a real pain in the neck.

Wet roads can spell danger in a second for van drivers and I would hope that most private van owners check their vehicle regularly, but if you drive a firm’s van you need to do more than check they’ve got adequate fleet van insurance, you need to make sure the van is fit for the road.

In wet weather that means having a long hard look at the tyres to make sure they’ve got enough tread, are inflated to the right pressure and that someone hasn’t mixed up tyre types.

The tyre safety organisation TyreSafe has some really useful information for commercial vehicle drivers and fleet managers, as well as downloadable tyre safety leaflets for car and small van drivers which can help you understand the dos and don’ts in tyre maintenance.

I checked Vanessa’s van tyres the other day and found that the two rear ones were underinflated. I think I’ll print her off a leaflet and pop it in the cab – and while I’m there I’ll grab my jump leads back!  

Image © AlishaV via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence