Winter driving and working conditions can be unpredictable, but with the right precautions, everyone can stay safe on the road.  

Whether you’re behind the wheel or supporting drivers, preparation makes all the difference.

If you are typically behind the wheel during the nighttime hours, here are some tips that can help keep you—and everyone else on the road—more safe.

• Check your headlights before you start your shift. The last thing you want is to be in a dark area late at night and discover that you only have one headlight. You can avoid this scenario by making sure all your lights work before you even get on the road. Realistically, this task should already be on your pre-inspection checklist. If it isn’t, make sure you add it. When looking them over, make sure they’re aimed in the right direction and that your high beams work.
• Check your windshield wipers too. If your wipers don’t work well, you’ll have a hard time seeing in the rain or snow. Give them a look to make sure they’re not too worn out, replacing them if they are. Top up your washer fluid while you’re at it so you can remove the windshield grime that often comes with wet or slushy roads.
• Lower your driving speed. At 65 mph, a passenger vehicle needs just over 300 feet to stop. This length increases to around 525 feet for a fully loaded tractor-trailer. And these distances can be even greater if the road is wet or slippery. Lowering your speed gives you longer to stop, which is even more important if you have a slower reaction time, are dealing with weather issues, or to make up for the stop time you lose due to brake lag.
• Increase your following distance. Another way to give you more time to stop your truck, if necessary, is to allow for more distance between you and the vehicle in front of you. Generally speaking, you should allow one truck’s length for every 10 mph in speed. If you’re going 60 mph, for example, there should be six truck lengths between you and the     vehicle ahead of you. Increasing your following distance can also reduce your risk of jackknifing if you face a sudden stop.
• Take a break if you get tired. Yes, you have a schedule to keep. But that schedule doesn’t do anyone any good if you fall asleep behind the wheel and hurt or kill yourself or someone else. If you feel tired, find someplace to stop and get out for a minute. This would be a good time to use the restroom or fuel up. According to a recent safety guidance, pulling over for a 15-20 minute nap and grabbing a cup of coffee during long or late-night drives can help restore wellness. A 2025 University of Iowa study found that drivers who combined short breaks with caffeine experienced immediate improvements in performance and focus behind the wheel. The Sleep Foundation also recommends a quick 20-minute nap to feel refreshed and alert before resuming driving. Even a brief moment or stretching during stops can help boost circulation and mental sharpness, supporting better focus and reaction times.
• Remain aware. It’s easy to sort of “zone out” when driving trucks, especially if it’s a lengthy trip or you’ve driven the same route several times before. However, zoning out at night means that your reaction time will be slower, making it harder to stop if an animal jumps out onto the road or an accident occurs in front of you. Pay attention to your surroundings and remain aware of any potential threats in that area, such as deer crossing the road or falling rocks, so you can respond quickly if you need.

More safety tips are available on Centerline’s app. Or, if you’re a driver who is currently looking for work or in search of a new job, we can help with that too.

We fill around 10,000 assignments annually. Contact us today and let us know how we can help you!

Summer brings longer days, higher temps, and new challenges behind the wheel. Heat illness, vehicle stress and dehydration are all real risks during the hottest months. So how can drivers stay safe, sharp and cool? Cruise through the summer heat with our essential hot-weather tips.

The National Driver All-Star Awards are awarded annually by NPTC to private fleet truck drivers who have demonstrated high-performance standards against their peer drivers throughout the country based on customer service, safety, adherence to company standards, regulatory compliance and community service.  

With safety being our number one priority at Centerline, we celebrate and appreciate two of our drivers being awarded.   

Here’s what our drivers have to say about being recognized for their dedication to safety:  

Melinda Cortes—As a driver, I take pride in being self-sufficient, professional and respectful. A simple smile, wave or hello can go a long way, and I believe communication, punctuality and courtesy are key to representing both myself and my company well. Safety and compliance are always my top priorities—from planning trips, monitoring conditions, staying alert and following regulations, ensuring loads arrive safely and on time. I strive to improve and be the best version of myself every day —whether through fuel efficiency, learning new skills, or supporting my team. Trucking means long hours and time away from family, but kindness and respect make the road a better place. We are all family here in the trucking world.  

 
Samuel Valentine—Customer service is everything to me. I take pride in being dependable, reliable, and honest, always focused on doing the job right. Safety is my top priority. I take my pre- and post-trip inspections seriously to ensure every unit I operate is roadworthy and compliant. I’m proud to maintain a 100% safety score in the company’s Motive Safety Performance system. I’m also consistent and detail-oriented when it comes to my Hours-of-Service compliance, and I keep open communication with my management team to stay proactive. I believe in being a team player who is professional and positive. I stay prepared, focused, and supportive of my team. I make it a point to be someone people enjoy working with—and someone they can count on. 

 
Congratulations to Melinda and Samuel on this well-deserved recognition and for embodying what it means to be a true all-star driver. And thank you for all you do for Centerline.   

Click here to read the full NPTC press release.

Use these tips to stay at your best during one of the busiest times of the year.

Take care of yourself

The most important thing during peak season as a driver is to make sure you are taking care of yourself. If you are not, you will not be able to maintain high volumes and frequent hauls.

–Stay hydrated: Drinking enough water is important all year round, but it’s especially important in the hot summer months. Proper hydration also increases alertness, boosts immunity and keeps all of your body’s systems running properly. Aim for 8-10 glasses a day to make sure your body stays hydrated.

–Get enough sleep: Being well rested helps your body fight off any illness and reduce stress levels. Sleep deprivation can cause your body to run down and make you more susceptible to burn out. Get 7-9 hours a night can ensure you stays healthy and alert.

–Take personal precautions for your health: Just like your truck, your body can overheat, and when that happens, it can lead to serious health issues. Knowing the warning signs and staying alert can make all the difference. Be aware of the symptoms and heat-related illnesses and take steps to stay cool, safe, and keep moving through the season.

Prepare for more traffic

During the summer, congestion increases. With more vehicles on the road, there are higher rates of accidents. Prioritizing safety and avoiding distracted driving can help keep you safe on the road all season long.

More traffic can also mean more stress on the road. Find a calming activity to reduce stress that you enjoy. This could be exercising, meditation, cooking, yoga, or being around friends and family. Find what works best for you to make sure your stress levels stay in check.

Summer weather

Summer can be an unpredictable time for weather, and it pays to be prepared. Temperatures and conditions can vary greatly across the country so take note of your location and get ready accordingly.

Heavy rainfall is also likely. To stay safe in the rain, be sure to slow down and leave room to avoid hydroplaning. Very little water can cause hydroplaning in a truck so be sure to adjust your speed according to the amount of water on the roadway.

Summer peak can be manageable if you are ready for it. Learn more lifestyle and safety tips here.

Centerline Drivers is an official partner of Truckers Against Trafficking. 

Through this partnership, we are committed to educating and empowering our drivers, customers, and internal teams to combat human trafficking on the road and throughout the community.

Join us and our drivers on the journey to combat human trafficking by pledging your commitment at www.centerlinedrivers.com/pledge.

In addition, people sharing the roadways are likely to be distracted, in a rush, or possibly impaired. 

First and foremost, practicing space management is key. If you distance yourself as a driver, you have the highest chance to mitigate yourself being exposed to a collision.

In addition to space management, use these six best practices while sharing the road with distracted drivers:

1. Watch your speed: If you find yourself outpacing the traffic around you, slow down. Additionally, remember to reduce your speed if you’re driving in areas where there may be families and large groups of people.  Also, remember to keep a safe distance between you and the vehicle in front of you, particularly in construction zones.
2. Be mindful of the weather: The Fourth of July falls right in the middle of thunderstorm season, so severe weather safety is a must for truckers. We all know that the weather can change quickly in many parts of the country, so it’s important to check the weather for your route ahead of time. If there’s a chance of severe weather, consider taking an alternate route if you can’t monitor the weather and conditions become too dangerous to drive.
3. Expect delays:  With a high volume of people on the road at the same time, it’s very possible that truck drivers will be exposed to heavy traffic, specifically in areas where camping, boating, and other outdoor activities are in heavy demand.  Be sure to plan your route ahead of time and account for potential delays. 
4. Limit distractions: Cell phones, eating and fatigue are three key factors to distracted driving. While it’s possible to talk while keeping your eyes on the road, it’s still a distraction and it causes the driver to lose focus on the primary objective. Never use a handheld device while operating a CMV, in addition, try not to eat while you’re driving. 
5. Rest up: Make sure you’re rested prior to starting your shift. Often times than not, a truck driver is trying to juggle their workload while trying to participate in family gatherings. It can become overwhelming and the element of fatigue becomes a hazard.
6. Maintain your truck: Summertime can really take a toll on trucks, so make sure your truck is well-maintained. During the summer months, it’s a good idea to check your tire pressure more regularly to avoid blowouts. If your tires are under-inflated, fix the problem as soon as you can.

While many, if not all of these tips apply and benefit trucks year-round, implementing small safety procedures can make a big difference for you, and everyone else on the road.

Looking for more insight on how to best stay safe on the road? Check out our ultimate guide to truck driver safety.

With Centerline Drivers, you can rest easy. Like you, we are serious about safety and have over 40 years of perfect DOT audits to prove it.

But what makes our safety program different from others?

1. Tailored safety programs

At Centerline, we tailor each safety program to our clients’ needs. We can hire and train drivers on a wide range of trucks and equipment, so you are never without the correct driver for the job.

Have a history of incidents? We can focus on safety efforts on your specific operational needs. We are a partner with our customers and we want each and every safety program to be about them.

In addition, Centerline works with each customer to conduct site evaluations and safety audits on request.

2. Effective communication and training programs

Centerline can quickly and effectively communicate any safety measures to our drivers. We have a centralized safety support team and a 24/7 service center for drivers to access the information they need.

With our centralized system and team in place, we can reach drivers with the same consistent message in real time so everyone receives the same communication.  This helps make sure drivers can stay on top of new compliance and safety protocols

3. In-house expertise

Our excellent DOT safety audit record is due to our experience in safety. We have a dedicated in-house safety and compliance team to ensure every Centerline driver is always in full DOT compliance.

Our experienced recruiting, service and safety teams work in partnership with each driver and customer to meet or exceed all DOT compliance and safety standards.

Want to experience the Centerline difference? Request drivers to get started today.

However, there is great value in creating a safety incentive program—especially for companies that employ drivers. Here, we talk about what this type of program looks like and the benefits it provides for transportation businesses. We also offer a few tips for getting a safety incentive program off the ground.

What is a safety incentive program?

As its name indicates, a safety incentive program is a program that incentivizes workers to take actions that promote safety in the workplace. Essentially, it provides some type of reward for actively engaging in workplace safety protocol.

In some cases, a safety incentive program is injury or illness-based. For instance, the company may reward employees if the number of workplace injuries stays below a certain amount.

The program can also be behavior-based. An example of this would be to reward employees who engage in the required safety protocol for a certain number of days in a row.

Safety incentive program benefits for transportation businesses

At a minimum, an injured employee is limited in their work abilities. Worst case scenario, they’re off work completely. So, incentivizing workplace safety is one way to keep more employees on the job.

Another benefit of a safety incentive program is that it reduces the costs that occur when safety isn’t a concern. If a driver fails to secure their load, for instance, your company faces a host of expenses. Among them are:

· Medical costs for your driver and anyone else injured should the load unexpectedly release

· Damage costs to your truck, any other vehicles struck, and any other property damaged

· Court costs should an innocent party sue your company for failure to enforce safe transportation protocol

Failure to make safety a priority can also harm your reputation. If you become known as a company that doesn’t seem to care about the safety of its employees or those potentially impacted by unsafe workplace practices, other companies may decide not to do business with you. Consumers might revolt as well, boycotting any company that uses your services—which tends to happen more regularly in today’s cancel culture.

Reinforcing employee safety can even help boost retention. If an employee feels that the company supports a safe work environment, your business becomes a more desirable place to work. Their family has greater peace of mind as well, safe in the knowledge that their loved one isn’t at great risk simply from clocking in for work.

How to create a safety incentive program

When creating a safety incentive program, it helps to first consider where any existing issues lie. Are workers in certain positions getting injured at a higher rate? Does the operation of a specific piece of equipment tend to be a regular safety issue?

Next, consider your areas with the greatest risk. Make a list of the departments or positions within your company that are the most susceptible to problems if safety is not enforced. Think also about the equipment that poses the greatest safety risks.

It can also be helpful to consider what workplace safety looks like in a perfect world. What actions would your employees be taking every single day if safety was a priority? Would your drivers not exceed a certain speed or wear their seat belts? What would their truck safety inspection look like before even leaving the lot?

Information collected from these three steps—considering your current safety issues, knowing where the company is most at risk and what a safe work environment looks like—will help dictate the actions and behaviors you want to reward. The next step is to decide what those rewards will be.

Ideas to consider include:

• Branded apparel that recognizes the safety achievement (such as a jacket that, under your logo, says “5 Years of Safe Practices”)
• Recognition at a workplace meeting or in the company newsletter
• Income bonus payments for each year safety is achieved
• Gift certificate to a local restaurant
• Tickets for a major event

Come up with a few smaller rewards that employees can strive for regularly, such as monthly, quarterly or bi-annually. Also include bigger rewards to recognize those that maintain safe practices every year, every 5 years or every 10 years.

There are several benefits of taking the steps needed to create a safe work environment, such as ours at Centerline. A safety incentive program helps reinforce safety as a priority, making your company not only a good place to work but also a company that is admired community-wide. 

Not sure how to get drivers to motivate your drivers to follow your safety program? Here are a few tips to get you started. 

Want more safety tips? Download our free driver safety guide here.

This can help keep you updated on any issues that arise as well as helping to show patterns in your safety records. If a negative pattern emerges, then you can easily adapt your safety program accordingly.

Here are a few trucking industry safety metrics to consider tracking.

Vehicle crash rate

Vehicle crash rate is a pretty standard, all-around safety metric that every operation should be tracking. This metric can show you how frequently your drivers are in crashes and show you quickly if you have a big safety program among your drivers.

You can calculate this by multiplying the number of crashes over the past 12 months by 1,000,000 then dividing by the total vehicle miles traveled over the same period.

It may also be helpful to track the types of crashes occurring and other details about the crashes to build a fuller picture.  

Crash severity

In addition to gathering your vehicle crash rate, you should also be tracking the severity of the crashes. You can do this by totaling the cost of a vehicle crash and from that, calculating the average cost per crash.

Keep in mind that crashes often include more indirect costs outside of property damage or injury expenses. Also think of potential operations disruptions, admin costs, morale, productivity and more when calculating the true cost.

Rate of pre-trip inspection completions

Pre-trip inspections are one of the most important tools to prevent accidents on the road as well as eliminate downtime and violations. But unfortunately, they are also something that many drivers skip.

By tracking inspection completion rates, you can hold your drivers accountable for completing this critical safety step. You can also match up data to show the impact of pre-trip inspections on your other safety metrics.

Not sure where to start with your pre-trip inspection? Watch our video for a walkthrough of what to check and how to make sure your truck is road-ready every time.

ELD Data

If you are taking advantage of installing all the possible tools your onboard platform provider has to offer, you can get a good picture of safety metrics and other critical data. An electronic logging device (ELD) can track fuel, over idling, speeding, harsh breaking events, over acceleration and other valuable pieces of data. These metrics can help you not only identify unsafe and aggressive driving, but can also show which drivers are abusing equipment. If you have drivers constantly pushing you equipment past it’s limit, you are risking frequent breakdowns and hazard risks.

NRO/PRO rate

Do you solicit feedback from the public, internal team members or industry partners about your drivers? If you have a “how’s my driving” sticker on any of your trucks, you should be tracking the rate of negative road observations (NRO) and positive road observations (PRO).

Everything submitted should be documented and tracked, even if you are giving the benefit of the doubt to the driver.

This can help determine whether patterns are emerging about certain drivers, both positive and negative. But documentation can help you take action either way, especially if there are other metrics that corroborate any feedback.

It can help you recognize safe and professional drivers for their outstanding work, boosting morale and investment in your safety program.

If you don’t solicit feedback from the public, onboard cameras might be a suitable alternative. Adding them can help you coach and recognize drivers for both safe and unsafe behaviors.

Need help creating a better safety program? We can help. Centerline Drivers has a dedicated in-house safety team to ensure every driver is safe on the road. Learn how our safety program is different.