Gertie's Safe Driving Tips

Hello, darlings!

I hope you're having an excellent start to your summer and enjoying the balmy weather. After all those months of winter, we deserve it!

Just because it's warm, though, it does not mean you should drop your professional standards. A courier should be just as diligent in summer as they are in winter, and whatever rules they observe then, they should observe year round – particularly when it comes to road safety.

That is why old Aunt Gertie has decided to set this post aside to offer a few safe driving tips, namely to do with loading a trailer – with a little help from the actual courier in the family, of course!

Loading a Trailer Safely

Now, before we begin, a disclaimer. Of course both my nephew and I know you know how to load up a trailer safely; you've probably all done it a million times over your careers. But the thing is, Stevie found a few new safe driving tips to do with the subject, straight from the most credible source you can think of – the FTA's Van Excellence Code.

That's right, for this article, we'll be enlisting the help of the 'real' experts - even if we're doing it indirectly. We want to make sure we share the best possible safe driving tipswith our audience, and who better to go to than the leading authority on freight transport in Britain, right?

So, what does the FTA have to say about safely loading up trailers, then? Here goes:

• Ensure both the vehicle and the trailer are road-worthy.
• Ensure the driver is experienced (hopefully a given).
• Check the load weight to ensure it's not too heavy for your trailer.
• Secure your load (this is the most important bit – you don't want things flying around in your cargo hull).
• Make sure the trailer is properly connected to the front bit of the lorry. Again – very important. You don't want a trailer coming loose when you're on the motorway!
• Allow for differences in braking and steering – after all, you DO have a heavy add-on at the back of your van or truck, which will make the whole thing heavier. Wind and turbulence can be an issue, too, so be extra-careful when turning corners, speeding up, etc.

There you have it, then, straight from the horse's mouth – the very best in safe driving tips relating to trailer loading and hitching. Follow them, and you just might find yourself being awarded a badge of van excellence yourself one day!

For now, though, ta-ra.

• Gertie

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