Truck Safety & Maintenance Could Save You Money

Keeping good care of your scrapping truck (or vehicle) is important to maintaining a solid way to transport your scrap to the scrap yards. Having the right safety features and techniques in mind also makes your scrapping a lot easier for everyone involved.

Truck Safety Tips for Scrapping

  1. Personal Safety – To maintain the level of safety and maintenance with your truck, start with yourself. Have the proper personal safety equipment is important to your overall safety. Be sure to have your gloves, helmet, glasses, steel-toed boots, back brace, and first aid kit on hand especially when you are loading and unloading your truck. When you arrive at work sites, you don’t always know what to expect when you arrive. Having the right equipment or clothing for the job in your truck can help you get the job done safely.
  2. Proper Tire Pressure – Be sure to maintain the proper tire pressure throughout your vehicle’s tires while on the road. Remember when the temperatures change dramatically your tires can expand or contract, which means they may need more or less air. Also be sure to always check your tires for nails, screws, pieces of metals, and other debris that may be stuck inside. When driving around worksites and scrap yards, keep an eye out for nails, screws, sharp objects, or debris.
  3. Check Your Lights – Checking your lights and vehicle’s exterior for damages to light signals is important. Make sure your turn signals, horn, headlights, taillights, brake lights, etc. are all working properly so that you can have the ability to make other drivers aware of you while driving. This is especially important if you are on the road early in the morning or late at night with a haul. Your truck could be very heavy and it’s important to see ahead so you can be prepared to stop in enough time to not worry about material shifting.
  4. Proper Tie-Down Materials – Having the right tie downs, harnesses, latches, etc. for your material in your truck bed or vehicle is very important. Any loose material or scrap that you have loaded into your truck should be securely tied down to be sure that it can’t fall out of the vehicle while driving. Also, be sure to have a bright cloth that you would be able to attach to any scrap pieces hanging off the back or side of the vehicle while in transit. Take a few extra minutes to properly tie down your materials, it can save you a headache with police and safety.
  5. Know Your Truck’s Weight – Knowing the weight and the weight capacity of your vehicle is important while scrapping. You should know the weight of your vehicle for the scales when weighing up empty and the capacity so that you know what your engine can handle while hauling large loads of materials. Also, it’s a good idea to know the weight, so that you know that the deductions are correct when you weigh up at the scrap yard. Also while traveling be sure to know the height clearance of where you will be backing into and the area you are looking to access so that your vehicle doesn’t get stuck and the material doesn’t get bumped off.
  6. Keep Up On Maintenance – Keeping your truck or vehicle running smoothly is a guarantee to have the ability to access new scrap jobs and make money. The cheapest way to maintain a “well-oiled machine” is to have a “well-oiled machine”. Have scheduled oil changes is the cheapest maintenance you can have done to your vehicle to keep it up with your scrapping. Keeping up with changing your tires, brakes, and other important parts of your truck can help you save money from expensive repairs.

So be sure to take these safety tips and maintenance suggestions to keep your truck running and scrapping. Also, be sure to check out ways to reduce the cost of transportation while scrapping.


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