- Is with some...
technology here,
and I think this is working.
It does say that it's live.
It does say that the timer's kicking over,
and hopefully some of the smart drivers
will get over here to this live stream,
'cause I know that I scheduled one.
Unfortunately, (chuckles) for whatever reason,
the phone is not doing what I need it to do.
So... if you're there,
leave a comment in the chat.
Corey will show you that this is the other stream.
Next week, I'll know that
when I go live at seven o'clock,
I will not schedule one,
because if for whatever reason,
it's not working through the phone app.
But here we are,
and I am in Wingham, Ontario.
As some of you know, I'm on holidays,
and I'm still doing the live stream,
still... looking after people, (chuckles)
helping people to get their driver's license,
because I know there's lots of people
at this time of year, especially after COVID,
and things opening up
that you're looking to get your driver's license,
drive more defensively,
and, you know, be safe on the roadways,
be a safer, smarter driver.
So tonight, we're going to talk about
eight tips that I have for you on
driving while you're on vacation.
So this is something to do with people
who are going to be licensing,
especially if you're in some of the tourist areas,
and those types of things,
and you're working towards your license,
you're going to have to know some of these things
that people are going to be in your area,
and they're going to be...
on vacation.
They're going to be driving slower, they may have got lost,
how to identify these people.
If the vehicle has got kayaks on it,
or they're pulling a trailer or camper van,
the vehicle is packed to the gills,
and the whole family's in the vehicle,
then, there's a good possibility that they could be lost,
and... you know,
driving slowly, driving unpredictably,
and those types of things.
So, eight tips for driving while you're on vacation.
The first thing you want to do is
you want to do vehicle maintenance,
especially if you're going to be traveling
farther than 250... miles
from your home base,
and you're away from your... trusted mechanics,
and people that you deal with all the time.
You're going to be dealing with other mechanics,
other shops on the roadways, and those types of things.
And the last thing you want to have to have happen
is that your vehicle breaks down.
So...
change the oil.
If you haven't changed the oil in awhile, then do that.
Do the regular maintenance.
Make sure all your fluids are full.
Make sure you have good windshield wipers on the vehicle.
If you have any cracks in the windshield
or chips or those types of things,
then make sure you get those repaired as well.
You might even want to invest in
getting your vehicle cleaned and detailed.
I know that my personal,
I just drove here to Ontario,
which is 3700 kilometers, 2300 miles.
And I spent some money and some time
to get my vehicle detailed, professionally detailed.
And it was really actually quite nice,
because I have an older vehicle, and it...
you know, years and years of grime,
and people sitting in it, and those types of things.
So it was very much worth getting the vehicle detailed.
Check your tires.
If you haven't had your tires rotated in awhile,
then definitely do that.
Get a professional tire person to check the tires,
get them done, and whatnot.
So do all of the maintenance, right?
And then do a mini pre-trip yourself.
Make sure that all the lights work,
the brake lights work,
the signals work,
front and rear, high beams, low beams,
especially if you're planning on driving at night,
and those types of things.
And if you're towing trailers, right?
You're going on holidays with your trailers
or your significant others,
you're going to be camping and those types of things,
then make sure you're doing all of that as well.
Okay, second thing,
second tip, tip number two, (chuckles)
plan your trip, okay, plan your route.
Where are you going to be going?
What roads are you going to be going on?
Where are you going to stay, accommodations,
and those types of things.
And how far are you going to travel every day?
You know, if you're going to be driving 600 miles a day,
that's a hard push
for most people who are going to be driving.
You know, if you're on holidays and relaxing
and those types of things, you know,
200 or 300 miles, that might be as far as you want
to travel in a day,
just so that you're not wearing yourself out,
and, you know, running yourself silly.
Because you are on holidays, remember? (chuckles)
We want to keep this kind of fun.
So... plan your route.
And then number three ties into number two
and planning your route.
Make sure that you book accommodations, book hotels,
and those types of things, you're going to be staying in them.
We booked our hotel...
up in Wawa there,
and... we got there,
and every hotel in the little town was booked.
And fortunately, we had booked our hotel.
There was another, unfortunately people
who had an emergency,
they were looking to get a hotel room
the same night we were in there,
and they couldn't get a hotel room
because they were all booked.
All right, number four, (chuckles)
This is a little pet peeve of mine,
if you're out on the highways and you're driving,
and traveling and those types of things,
make sure that you're doing a constant speed.
If you don't know how to use cruise control,
please learn how to use cruise control.
I'll put a video up in the corner for you there.
Have a look at that
and learn how to use cruise control because there's,
you just cannot keep a constant speed on a fuel pedal.
It's just nigh impossible.
Especially if you're driving a larger vehicle.
If you've rented an RV and you're driving an RV,
you can't keep a constant speed, okay?
And if people tell me that they can,
no, that's, that's just bunk.
And there's nothing more frustrating
when you're on the highway
and you're following somebody who's 50 miles an hour,
55 miles an hour, 45 miles an hour,
60 miles an hour, 50 miles an hour.
That's incredibly frustrating for traffic behind them.
It's like, you know,
even if you're just going to drive the posted speed limit,
pick one speed and drive one speed, all right?
Fuel...
Tip number...
tip number five, okay?
For vacationing and defensive driving.
Once your fuel tank gets down to half tank,
three eights of a tank of fuel,
start looking for a fuel station
because you don't want to be out there
and you don't want to be running out of fuel.
You don't want to,
especially if you don't know where you're going,
you don't want to have that other concern of having to look
for fuel and those types of things,
especially if you're running through the night
or you're running in the early morning hours,
and those types of things,
make sure that you keep your fuel tank above a half a tank
and... keep lots of fuel in the fuel tank.
(chuckles) We kind of made that mistake.
We were traveling from Winnipeg to Kenora,
and early in the morning, we left at like, you know,
four o'clock in the morning,
didn't put fuel in the... in the truck.
And we basically rolled into Kenora on fumes with the,
with the fuel, you know, the low fuel light on.
And it was a bit of an error on my part,
because you know, you don't really know how far Kenora is,
or how far into town you have to go.
You know, cause you're in Northern Ontario,
you're in a remote remote place.
So make sure that you keep fuel in your vehicle.
And if you're, you know, once you get to half a tank,
three eights of a tank fuel,
start looking for a fuel station, like I said,
especially running in the early mornings,
and those types of things.
Tip number six, you know,
don't just rely on your GPS.
And if you're going into another Canada,
if you're in the states and you're coming into Canada,
know that you're going to pay roaming charges
for your phone, if your phone is on GPS.
So... look for landmarks,
look for the signs, for the highways that you're on,
and be vigilant about making sure
that you're seeing those every half an hour or so,
because you don't want to get off the main road.
It's pretty easy in some of these smaller towns,
especially if you're running on a state road
or something like that.
And...
they have....
a bypass around the city
that you're going to have to follow those signs
to get around the city.
So know that,
that you're going to have to follow the signs.
You're going to have to be reading the road signs,
make sure you're reading all of the road signs.
All of this will provide landmarks for you to navigate
and route plan, and get to where you want to go.
Don't just reply, rely on your GPS
'cause your GPS can be wrong.
And sometimes you just have to look out the windshield
to get to where you're going. All right?
Number seven, passing.
You get on some of these state roads.
Some of these two lanes, skinny roads...
that are not multi-lane,
you're going to have to pass.
Most of these two lane roads are going to have passing lanes
every 10 or 15 miles.
You're just going to have to wait,
(coughs) excuse me.
If you're not comfortable passing,
then you're going to have to wait for a passing lane,
but look at the road markings
in the center of the road
and know when it's safe to pass.
When you get the dotted line on your side,
or it's a dotted, one single dotted line
going up the road,
know that that's when it's going to be safe to pass,
you're going to need a big gap to be able to pass safely
because you're going to be out in that other lane
for a fair bit of time, maybe 20, 30, 45 seconds.
So this is kind of a skill that
you're going to have to practice.
This is a skill you're going to have to be able to do.
So, passing on two lane roads.
Sometimes if you're not comfortable with it,
just make...
wait until the passing lanes come, you know,
it's going to be 10 or 15 minutes up the road,
and you're just going to have to bear with it.
So, know that for the purposes of passing.
Tip number eight, this is kind of a bonus tip.
If you're going to be driving at night, and you know,
most of you are not going to be driving at night
because you're on holidays, right?
We don't want to be driving at night.
But if you do need to drive at night,
you have to catch a ferry,
or you have to get to an airport,
or you have to catch the train or whatever,
and you need to leave early and you're driving at night.
Just to be very careful at night,
especially if you're in remote areas,
and those types of things.
'Cause there's going to be animals on the roadway,
moose, and deer, and other small animals
and whatnot coming out onto the roadways.
One of the things that I always do at night
when I'm driving, you know,
try and drive with your high beams on as much as possible,
make sure you flip that little lever
underneath the center mirror
so the lights aren't reflecting in and fatiguing you.
Turn your dash lights down as low as you can stand them.
And...
if you can,
this isn't always possible.
But if you're driving in the early hours of the morning
where there's very few other vehicles on the roadway,
make sure that
you're trying to follow another vehicle
and follow it at a distance.
And I always kind of, you know,
it's kind of my animal buster is what I call it,
where I'm following another vehicle,
because then I know that, you know,
the road going to be clear
and there aren't going to be animals standing out
on the roadways and those types of things.
Because in my experience of hitting animals,
and finding animals on the roadway, unfortunately,
there's very little that you can do about it.
They just come out of nowhere,
and... you know,
you hit them before you can really do anything.
They talk about, you know,
seeing the reflection of your lights in their eyes
and those types things.
I just do not, that has not been my experience.
My experiences is that I,
all of a sudden... there they are.
So that's the last one in terms of, you know,
night driving,
make sure that you keep the glass clean as well.
Also that will reduce fatigue.
And you know, if you're driving at night
and you're just tired, make sure you just stop,
because you don't want to risk being
involved in a crash because you're tired,
and those types of things.
And... (chuckles) this live stream here,
it's telling me that there isn't anybody on this livestream.
There's nobody here.
So I'm just going to leave it there.
I don't even know if this is working,
if this is live streaming,
it is counting over and those types of things.
But, like I said, I don't know whether it is.
So those are eight tips
that you can use for defensive driving,
and driving in the summertime and on vacations,
and people who are licensed,
getting a license and those types of things,
you know, know if you're in a tourist town
and those types things,
you are going to have a lot of tourists around
and those types things.
RVs and whatnot.
And like I said, you know, you're driving an RV,
it's a bigger vehicle, it's going to slow down on the hills,
and those types of things,
constant speed,
because it's incredibly frustrating to be behind traffic
that's not maintaining a constant speed
when you're out on the highway.
So if you don't know how to use cruise,
learn how to use cruise.
'Cause that's kind of my pet peeve.
So, thanks very much!
We'll leave it there for tonight.
Have a great night,
and remember, pick the best answer,
not necessarily the right answer.
All the best! Bye.