Winter Lorry Driving Checklist: What to Carry and How to Handle Ice and Snow

The first proper frost always seems to land on a Monday, before the gritters have made their rounds and while everyone is still driving as though it were October. Winter lorry driving is not simply about going slower. It is about what you carry, what you check before you roll, and how you handle the two or three moments in a shift where a small error becomes an expensive one.

Before the first turn of the key

A cold start tells you a lot about the day ahead. Ten minutes spent in the yard beats an hour spent on a slip road, and most of the checks are the ones you already do, just done more carefully.

Batteries lose a good share of their cranking power in low temperatures. A battery that has been merely adequate since spring will pick a minus-five morning to give up, so if it has been sluggish lately, say so rather than hoping. While the engine warms, watch the air system as it builds pressure. Drain the tanks, listen for the drier, and take note of anything that sounds slow or sticky. Moisture in the system shows itself now, and a valve that freezes at the wrong moment is not something you want to discover at a roundabout. If the low-pressure warning does not clear quickly, do not move until you know why.

Then work around the vehicle: coolant strength, oil level, all lights, tyre pressures and tread. Pressures drop as temperatures fall, and tread depth matters far more in the wet and the cold than it does in July. Top the washer fluid up neat rather than diluted — the cheap dilution is what freezes and cracks a pump. Wipers should be lifted off the screen if a hard freeze is forecast, and a wipe of silicone spray or even furniture polish along the rubber door seals stops them welding shut overnight.

The kit that earns its place in the cab

Space is tight, and anything loose becomes a missile in a hard stop, so stow it properly — under the bunk, in a strapped box, anywhere it cannot travel. Check with your operator what is expected and permitted on your fleet.

• A metal-bladed shovel. Plastic garden spades snap in frozen grit.
• A bag of grit, sand or cat litter for the drive wheels.
• Jump leads or a boost pack rated for your engine.
• A tow strap and shackles fit for the vehicle's weight. Find the recovery points before you need them, not in the dark.
• A head torch and a hand torch, plus spare batteries.
• Two hi-vis vests — one for you, one for whoever stops to help.
• A spare pair of gloves and waterproof boots. Wet gloves lose their value fast.
• A blanket or sleeping bag, a flask, water and food that keeps.
• A power bank and a charging lead.
• Ice scraper, de-icer, spare wiper blades, spare bulbs and fuses.
• A first-aid kit.
• Warning triangle, and the spare wheel and tools if you carry them.

Visibility: seeing and being seen

Clear the whole vehicle, not just the driver's side of the windscreen. Mirrors, lights, number plates and the camera lenses if you run them. Snow left on the roof slides forward under braking, straight onto the glass, and it also lifts off at speed and lands on whoever is behind you. The same applies to the trailer roof and the catwalk.

Use the air conditioning alongside the heater to demist — it dries the air rather than just warming it, and it works on cold mornings. Keep lights and lenses wiped at every stop; road spray builds a film quickly. Use fog lights when visibility genuinely drops and switch them off when it lifts, because they dazzle and mask your brake lights. And resist the temptation to leave the engine running while you finish your coffee in the services: many operators and insurers take a dim view of an unattended running cab, and it is how vehicles disappear.

Driving on ice and snow

Pulling away and steering

Pull away in a higher gear than usual and let the torque do the work gently. If a drive wheel spins, you are not moving faster, you are polishing the surface under it. Steering inputs should be slow and progressive; a sharp correction on a slippery surface is how a trailer starts to come round. Cruise control stays off — it cannot feel the road and will happily add power on ice.

Braking and slowing

Brake in a straight line, before the bend and not through it. Think in terms of at least double your normal dry gap, and much more on packed snow or ice. On a unit, be cautious with a strong retarder or engine brake in low grip: it can lock the drive axle and start a jackknife on a bend. Many fleets advise turning it down or off in these conditions, so follow your operator's guidance. Watch the spray coming off the vehicle ahead — lots of spray means standing water, none at all on a wet-looking road can mean ice.

Hills and junctions

Choose your gear before the descent, not halfway down, and keep a steady, light brake rather than a series of grabs. Look well beyond the vehicle in front for stopped traffic on a rise, because a loaded lorry that loses momentum on a gradient is very hard to get moving again. Junctions deserve the same care: slow early, brake straight, and leave yourself room to complete the turn without stopping mid-manoeuvre. Bridges and overpasses freeze first, shaded stretches hold ice long after the sun is up, and low-lying roads near water are the classic spots for black ice at dawn.

When you are stuck, stopped or waiting

Spinning the wheels only digs you deeper. Clear snow from around the tyres, lay grit or cat litter in front of the drive wheels, and try rocking gently in the highest gear that will take it. If the vehicle will not move after a couple of attempts, stop and call for recovery rather than burning the clutch or the diff. If you are running the engine for warmth, check that the exhaust is not buried in snow and crack a window; never sit in a snowed-in cab relying on the heater with the exhaust blocked. Put your hi-vis on before you get out, keep well away from live lanes, and if it is safer to remain belted in the cab on a motorway, stay there with the hazards on and tell your office where you are.

Shovelling heavy, wet snow is hard physical work, and if you have a heart or lung condition it is worth speaking to a doctor before treating it as part of the job.

Make it a routine, not a ritual

The drivers who have uneventful winters are rarely the ones with the best instincts. They are the ones who run the same short checklist before every cold shift: battery, air, fluids, tyres, lights, kit. They tell someone their route when the forecast is grim, they top the cab kit back up after a trip rather than before the next emergency, and they accept that a load arriving an hour late costs less than a lorry in a ditch.

Winter does not need to be dramatic. Load the cab properly, look further ahead than usual, and treat every control — throttle, brake, steering — as though it were made of glass. That is most of the job done.

Photo: garten-gg / Pixabay