Hi there smart drivers Rick with Smart Drive.
Test. Today we have a virtual driving
lesson for you directed mostly for
commercial drivers so that they work
smarter, not harder, but it's also a great
driving lesson for all drivers because
it will reduce the stress in your drive,
increase fuel economy, and extend the
life of your vehicle. We'll be right back with
your virtual driving lesson.
Stick around.
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Hi there smart drivers, Rick with Smart
Drive Test taking you on a virtual
driving lesson today.
Last Saturday I was returning the rental
truck that I was using for some videos
and had a drive-through Kelowna and
thought that it would be useful for CDL
drivers--class 1, class 'A' drivers--and some
of the things that I tell you about
working smarter, not working harder. One
of the ways that you make a
tractor-trailer unit go faster is by
attaining a higher average speed over
the course the day. And how we do that is by
keeping the vehicle going. So what I did
was I drove south through Kelowna,
British Columbia for approximately six
and a half kilometers - about four miles
here on a multi-lane road. And you can
see that it is raining as well and it's
at night. But the point here is is that
throughout that drive through traffic
lights and city driving I keep the vehicle
going and essentially what I want to
show you is one of the games that
driving instructors play with students.
Essentially the game is called 'GO green,' which
is to make the traffic light go green, so
you don't have to stop your vehicle. And not
stopping your vehicle and keeping it going
will increase fuel economy on that
vehicle and also reduce stress on
yourself as the driver. Now the thing you
want to do to be successful at the game
'GO green is you want to drive in the
spaces between the clusters of traffic.
And as you can see here is that all the brake
lights are on and the traffic is stopped.
And essentially what I'm doing in the big
truck is controlling the throttle. I have
a lot of space in front of my vehicle,
which creates a buffer and instead of
hitting the brake and bringing the vehicle
to stop, I can simply let off the
throttle, reduce my speed, close up that
space in front of me
and by the time I get near the vehicles in
front of me those vehicles have taken
off because the light turned green and they
proceeded down the road. And essentially
I didn't bring my vehicle to stop like the
other drivers did. Now watch the traffic as
we're moving through town; here you'll
see that the brake lights are coming on
all the time because people are too
close to the traffic in front of them,
therefore they're forced to do a lot
more braking than what you do if you
create that buffer space in front of you.
Now as well you can see here in the
footage that it's gone from two lanes to
three lanes - the other place that you
want to drive if you're moving straight
through town is in the middle late,
unless you're turning right or left. You
always want to be in that middle lane.
The middle lane allows for the best
defensive posturing because you can keep
space around your vehicle on both the
left and right side. And you can see as
well that the city transit buses right
up there on the right side, I never really
get up beside the transit bus and when I
do I move to pass the city transit bus.
Because when you're driving a large
vehicle you don't want to be sitting
beside other large vehicles because the
buffer of space around your vehicle has
now been compromised.
The other point about controlling space
in front of your vehicle and one of the
things that many drivers have said to me over
the years in a form of a rebuttal was: "well
if I maintain space front of my vehicle
people are always going to cut me off!"
Now you can see I charged that yellow light a
little bit, but I didn't want to bring the vehicle
to a stop and there was ample time on the yellow to move
through the intersection safely.
I always kind of try not to chuckle when
people say that other drivers will cut them off if they maintain space in front because you can
see here in the footage, as we move
through town, that nobody cuts me off and
nobody takes the space that I am
maintaining in front of my vehicle. And
even in heavier traffic I have found that
people do not cut me off. They will move
into that space, but all you do is
let off the throttle and they will
accelerate and you will again maintain
that space. So if you keep that buffer of
space in front of your big truck you're going to
shift a lot fewer gears and keep the
vehicle moving. You can see again the
traffic turning into that inside right lane and
you can see the brake lights coming
on here. And you can hear the diesel
engine - I'm just letting off the throttle
and controlling the throttle and timing
the traffic lights. I'm watching the
traffic lights and keeping a good buffer of
space in front of me. And I'm not
bringing the vehicle to a stop and
ideally that's what you want to do is
you want to create that buffer of space
so when you're in urban areas and you're
in traffic on multi-lane roads you don't
want to have to bring the vehicle to
stop. Because if you bring that vehicle
to a stop--as veteran truck drivers will
tell you--you go up and down through that
gearbox all the all day long in stop-
and-go traffic - at the end
the day you are really, really beat up. So
maintain your space in front of your
vehicle. That is the space around your
vehicle that you can always, always
control. Control the space in front of
the vehicle, work the throttle, less braking
and you will increase fuel economy,
reduce stress on yourself, and also
increase the life of your vehicle, and
reduce the amount of maintenance that
needs to be done on your vehicle. Quick review -
if you're on a multi-lane highway and
there's three lanes, drive into center
lane because the left and right lanes
should be used for turning. Only move
into those lanes if you're going to be
turning. And the other thing - there will
be turning vehicles in those lanes.
Those vehicles are going to hold you up,
so to keep your vehicle moving forward
and prevent stopping or to reduce the
amount of stopping that you're going to
have to do - travel in the middle lane. As
well drive in the spaces between the
clusters of vehicles to maintain a big
buffer of space in front of your vehicle.
That way you can work the throttle, and
close up that space when the traffic
stops or slows down and then when you
get near them and the light goes green,
the traffic is going to move off and
you'll simply increase that space again.
If somebody does move into your space or
cuts you off, just let off the throttle, and
they'll be accelerating and you'll just
simply move back and create that space
again. As I said for commercial drivers,
if you can do this and hang back and
move through the traffic lights, you're
not going to be up and down through that
gearbox all day. And at the end of the
day you're going to be a lot less tired
than what you normally would. And for all
drivers--drivers of both commercial
vehicles and passenger vehicles--this is
going to reduce the stress of your drive,
because you're going to keep your
vehicle back, drive in the spaces between
the clusters of traffic, and you're not going
to be on the brakes all the time. You're
going to increase the life of your
vehicle and increase fuel economy. And
all of that saves us a little bit of
money! Question for my smart drivers: do
you keep a buffer of space in front of
your vehicle as a defensive posturing
when you're driving? Leave a comment down
in the comment section there - all that
helps us out. I'm Rick with Smart Drive
Test, thanks very much for watching. If
you like what you see here share,
subscribe, leave a comment down in the
comment section. As well, hit that thumbs
up button.
For those of you working towards a license
or a
career as a truck or bus driver, check
out all the information on the channel -
lots of great information here. And head
over to my website, more great
information over there as well -
online courses that you can purchase,
logbook courses, air brakes and what not.
Check out all the videos on the channel,
you can find those here.
Thanks again for watching, good luck on
your road test. Remember, pick the best
answer, not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day. Bye now.
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