Winter doesn't change the physics of an 80,000-pound vehicle — it multiplies them. Stopping distances stretch dramatically on packed snow and ice, and the margin for error shrinks with them.
1. Before you roll
Clear every light, mirror and window — all of them. Check your wipers and washer fluid, drain air-tank moisture, and carry chains where the route requires them. Know the chain laws for the states you'll cross.
2. On the road
- Slow down more than feels necessary. Posted limits assume dry pavement.
- Stretch your following distance well beyond the dry-weather rule of thumb; double it or more on slick surfaces.
- Be gentle with everything — throttle, brakes and steering. Abrupt inputs break traction.
- Watch for black ice: a road that looks merely wet when the temperature is near freezing, spray from other vehicles suddenly stopping, ice building on your mirror arms.
- Bridges and ramps freeze first. Treat them as ice until proven otherwise.
3. Knowing when to stop
The adverse-conditions HOS exception can give you up to two extra driving hours when weather was unforeseeable — but no load is worth a jackknife. If conditions are beyond safe, get off the road at a safe location and tell dispatch. That decision is always yours.
Review speed and space fundamentals in the road driving lessons.