Safe Driving of Tankers

Safe Driving of Tankers

A tanker can refer to both a straight truck and a semi that hauls tanks. They are used for transporting a variety of liquids, gases, chemicals and even bulk dry loads (grain, sand etc.). Safe Driving of Tankers is very different to driving cars. Many tankers are filled with hazardous or flammable materials which add to the risk if the driver were to get in an accident. Roads and highways can be dangerous for a variety of reasons, including bad weather, heavy traffic and construction. The driver characteristics such as age, health conditions, etc. had a significant influence on tanker accidents. Most of tanker accidents occurred on horizontal and vertical curves. If a tanker driver maintains a cool head and follows all driving rules and regulations these risks will be minimized.

Safe Driving of Tankers rules
In order to drive tank vehicles safely, you must remember to follow all the Safe Driving of Tankers rules. A few of these rules are:

Safe and reasonable speed Never drive the tanker faster than a speed at which it can be fully controlled. Never exceed the posted speed limit when driving under nonemergency response conditions.

Drive Smoothly Because of the high center of gravity and the surge of the liquid, you must start, slow down, and stop very smoothly. Also, make smooth turns and lane changes.

Controlling Surge Keep a steady pressure on the brakes. Does not release too soon when coming to a stop. Brake far in advance of a stop and increase your following distance. If you must make a quick stop to avoid a crash, use controlled or stab braking.
Curves Slow down before curves, then accelerate slightly through the curve.

Stopping Distance Always keep safe distance from vehicle in front, to make safe stoppage in case that vehicle stops abruptly. Remember that wet roads double the normal stopping distance. Empty tank vehicles may take longer to stop than full ones.

Skids Don’t over steer, over accelerate or over brake. If you do, your vehicle may skid. On tank trailers, if your drive wheels or trailer wheels begin to skid your vehicle may jackknife.

Weight All tankers should be weighed completely full and that weight should be posted on the vehicle’s dashboard. This will help the driver to determine if it is safe to drive the vehicle on a road that has posted weight restrictions.

Spotters Use spotters when backing the tanker. Even though cameras and other devices for assisting with backing the apparatus do provide some measure of safety, there is no substitute for having at least one, preferably two spotters to guide the driver while the tanker is being operated in reverse.

Back-up alarms retrofit all tankers with back-up alarms. These devices warn other people in the area that a tanker is backing up.

Seat belt Wear your seatbelt whenever the driving the tanker. A significant percentage of tanker accidents involves the vehicle rolling over and the driver or passenger being thrown from the vehicle. The chance of serious injury or death is greatly multiplied when the occupant is thrown from the vehicle. Wearing of seatbelts will prevent nearly all ejections from the vehicle.

Keep all wheels on the primary road surface at all times Having the tanker’s right-side wheels drift off the edge of the road is one of the most common causes of tanker crashes. If the right-side wheels do get off the edge of the road, do not try to bring the tanker back onto the road surface at a high speed. Slow it to 20 mph or less before trying to bring the wheels back onto the road surface.

Keep the windows rolled up This will add an extra measure of security in preventing the occupants from being ejected from the tanker in the event of a rollover crash.

Route of travel Driving the shuttle route is one of the most hazardous tasks for tanker drivers. A circular route of travel is considered to be the optimum method for conducting a water shuttle operation.