Many professional truck drivers are put in a seemingly impossible situation when driving in snow- and ice-prone areas in the winter.
Consider these facts:
- Truckers are required by law to remove snow and ice from the tops of their trailers in some places (and may face financial penalties if they do not);
- Truckers are usually given no tools with which to remove the snow and ice from their trailer tops;
- Truckers are usually given no ladders to get on top of — and back down from — trailer tops;
- It is unsafe to be up on top of a trailer without safety equipment;
- Trailer tops were not designed to be walked on;
- Tools that allow truckers to scrape snow off the tops of trailers from the ground may not be strong enough (or designed) to remove ice;
- Snow and ice removal “stations” are few and far between;
- Many trucking companies do not have snow and ice scraping devices installed on the tops of their trailers;
- Truckers may be labeled as “lazy” or “careless” if they do not remove the snow and ice from their trailer tops and an “ice missile” that subsequently flies from the top of a trailer they are hauling hits a vehicle; and
- Ice missiles can seriously injure (or kill) the driver and/or passengers in a vehicle following a truck (as well as seriously damage the vehicle).
A compilation of snow removal laws used to be online.(1)
Some folks have complained here but there seem to be no answers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1480239975526173/permalink/1544908755725961/.
Truckers, what is your solution to this seemingly impossible situation?
Update: I proposed this solution on April 11, 2018:
No Snow Roof – A Solution for Eliminating Snow and Ice on Trailer Roofs.
Comment Submitted January 8, 2015
Trucking companies need to install trailer top scraping equipment
by: Vicki Simons
Unless trucking companies install snow and ice scraping devices on top of all of their trailers, I don’t see this situation improving.
Note: This article — which was originally written and published on January 8, 2015, by Vicki Simons — was updated slightly in 2018.
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Reference
1. www.theclda.com/Portals/0/GLAC/Snow%20Removal%20Laws%20September%202014.pdf (no longer online)