The speed limit for heavy vehicles on the open road is 90km/h, but the open road speed limit for cars and motorbikes is 100km/h (or 110km/h on selected stretches). This means that trucks could exceed their speed limit by up…
Side underrun protection devices or ‘lateral protection devices‘ occupy larger spaces between axles on a rigid truck or a semitrailer. They are barriers or plates that sit in the space between axles. They are designed to: The barriers help stop…
What is a retractable axle? Sometimes trucks will have an axle that they can lift up – a retractable axle. If it’s on the tractor unit it’s often called a pusher axle while if it’s on a trailer it’s often…
Refrigerated trailers enable temperature-sensitive freight to be moved by road. If you are purchasing a reefer, or if you are simply doing a pre-trip inspection, this article explains what you should be looking for to make sure the trailer is…
While most people know the basic rules of the road, there are many more unwritten rules or obscure rules that help keep traffic flowing smoothly and reduce incidences of road rage. If you can practice most of these, you’ll find…
According to Anxiety UK, driving phobia or ‘vehophobia’ affects as many as one-in-ten drivers, making it one of the most common phobias. Why do people suffer fear of driving? Driving phobias are all learned fears. A learned fear of driving…
When one or more lanes end or where two lanes join into one or where a feeder lane (e.g. an on-ramp or slip road) joins another road, vehicles need to merge. The rule for merging where a lane ends is…
This brake has different names: handbrake, parking brake, e-brake and emergency brake. From its names, you’d expect some radically different scenarios, but they do hint at its intended use if we go back far enough. It’s often called a handbrake…
The average lifetime of a vehicle battery is around 3-4 years, but it depends on their maintenance, operating conditions and how frequently they are used. If your battery fails at a critical time it can cause a lot of inconvenience,…
A windshield is an important component of the vehicle’s construction; a chip or a crack on it could compromise your safety. Even a small chip in the wrong position can cause distractions or impair your vision, leading to an accident.…
We all hate that feeling we get when you have to pull over to the side of the road because you’ve heard the car make a funny sound. Maybe you’ve even been unable to avoid something on the road and…
These are often set as questions in maths tests but are useful for us to know so that we can approximate how long a journey will take. There’s a simple formula which governs the three, and it can be expressed…
Winter driving is predominantly characterised by less traction available on the road. Basically, your tyres have less grip because the road’s surface will have ice, snow, mud or water on it. As well as slippery road surfaces, this is a…
Why can a C section make it difficult to drive? A Caesarian or C section is a surgery that involves cutting the muscles of the abdominal wall. The healing process can be painful as those muscles are used all the…
Retreads or regrooves are tyres which have been used at least once and had new tread or new grooves applied so that they can be used again. They were popular for passenger vehicles a couple of decades ago but fell…
Heavy vehicle tyres are filled to a much higher pressure than car tyres. Because of the potential injury to the tyre technician if the tyre blows while it’s being filled, truck tyres are filled in a cage. If the tyre…
Your vehicle’s lights are no match for the sun. They illuminate things only to shades of grey. There’s less detail and depth perception is worse. Vision is our primary sense when driving and once you dull that sense, driving becomes…
The advent of self-driving vehicles aims to reduce car crashes and curb carbon emissions globally, but it also brings bad news. Countless drivers may be displaced or even face unemployment once the machines take the wheel. Self-driving cars are inevitably…
If you are receiving a WINZ benefit and want to improve your career prospects by building your driving skills, they may pay for courses, but you need to get us to provide a quote for you to supply to WINZ.…
Wheel-off incidents – where a wheel comes off a vehicle while it’s moving – can cause property damage, injury and even death. It’s more common than you realise. In 2010 a bus passenger was killed when a wheel came off…
