If you or your staff drive for a living during Canadian winters, icy roads, blowing snow, and even highway closures can be detrimental to your business and employees’ safety. So we came up with some techniques to help keep your company’s driving record clean despite these conditions. Now if only there was a way to keep your cars clean all winter too…

1. Preventative Maintenance

Simply topping up your antifreeze and windshield washer fluid, and checking your winter tires’ tread quality and tire pressure can make a difference. Be sure record when every maintenance item was last performed.

2. Institute a Driver Policy

Having all your employees sign a Driver Policy reinforces the standards you expect them to follow when using company cars. It also reassures your drivers that they have your full support in case they get in an accident, so long as they’re driving safely.

3. Check your Emergency Roadside Safety Kit

Hazardous conditions often lead to road closures and long delays in help arriving at the scene of an accident. So make sure each of your cars has a stocked emergency roadside safety kit which includes:

• A shovel
• Tow rope or chain
• Booster cables
• Fuel line antifreeze
• A small tool kit
• A fire extinguisher

To alert rescuers, kits should contain:

• Road flares or warning lights
• Bright cloth to use as a flag
• ‘Call Police’ sign
• Flashlight and extra batteries

This will help if you or an employee is trapped in a snowstorm:

• Emergency food (non-perishable such as canned fruit, nuts, candy, biscuits, crackers, cookies, dried beef, honey)
• Extra clothing and footwear
• Blankets
• Matches
• Bottled water
• A candle and small tin
• Can opener and pocket knife
• First aid kit

Some listed items may not help prevent incidents but they can still stop delays from becoming disasters, or small accidents from becoming emergencies.