How complacent are you? Have you been driving for a long time and no longer worry about bad weather conditions? Were you glued to weather reports during this last storm, reviewing your route options as the storm details were revealed? If you have stopped doing that kind of analysis of your route then you may be becoming complacent. The trouble is when you become complacent you stop paying attention to the same details that can save your life.

When there are snow storms the best scenario is to stay off the road all together. Of course as truck drivers your job is to be on the road so usually when everyone else is trying to stay off the road, you are getting on the road. For most of you over time you have probably created a high level of tolerance to bad weather. I know friends of mine that just cringe when driving in bad weather while I have created techniques for myself over time to help deal with those same conditions. I am sure many of you have created the same type of techniques for yourself. You have to have ways of dealing with unexpected occurrences or you would be stopping at the side of the road every time it started to rain. There is a difference however, between having good driving techniques and complacency.

We naturally fall into complacency as we go through our career. From 0-5 years you are in learning mode of your career and gaining experience. From 5-10 years you are in the centre of your game and usually working in your prime. After 10 years of experience the complacency starts usually because you have been doing the job for so long. This is where updating yourself and refocusing your routine is what keeps you from being one of those accident statistics.

So take the complacency test. When you hear of bad weather do you recalculate your route or do you keep going the same direction and see how things work out? Are you continually improving your processes and work environment to be as efficient as possible? Are you still willing to shut it down in bad weather or do you feel you must make it through bad weather no matter what happens? If you are doing some of these then you should be improving and hopefully getting better at your position of being a professional driver.  If you are not doing some of these things then you may be slipping into complacency mode. Once you begin slipping into complacency mode you may be on the way to having an accident. The problem is you may not know about it!