We have posted many warnings about the perils of winter driving over the last few weeks as we anticipate the return of seasonal plunges in temperature and associated weather conditions. Time to check those warranties, breakdown covers and van insurance policies before you shut up shop for Christmas and pray that we’re not hit as hard as last year.
Someone up there must be listening – we’ve just had the shortest day and, by midnight last night, I was sitting with only a pair of shorts and a t-shirt on, looking for something cool to drink rather than the hot-chocolate I tend to start supping around bedtime come the end of November. Unseasonal? I wouldn’t fancy being Santa in a couple of nights time underneath all of that red suede and fur and his large white beard – I’ll leave him an Oasis out on Saturday rather than his usual hot toddy, methinks!
Okay – yes it’s warm for the time of year, but that will pass. We’ll soon be seeing ice and snow on our way to work as we head into 2012 and this unseasonal clemency will have been forgotten.
As well as the dangers to one’s self of driving in such conditions, as we have gone to great pains to point out here on www.cheapvaninsurance.co.uk, there are otherwise vulnerabilities that we expose whilst the van is stationary. As roads freeze in the early hours we turn the heater on ‘for five’ before we get into the van and head off to site or onto the run in minus temperatures.
Many a time as I’ve walked to fetch the newspaper of a morning, crunching through thick frost or several inches of snow as it was last year, I have been engulfed by fumes from a driverless car or van as the (absent) driver leaves the engine ticking over to either warm the cab or clear the ice from the windscreen before embarking on his or her journey to work.
However, this practise could seriously impact your business if an opportunist thief made away with your van under such conditions. Not only are you leaving yourself liable to public prosecution but you are negating your van insurance policy, both for its return and replacement of tools you may keep within.
Coming next, ways to prevent ‘frost jacking’ in the run up to winter and how and why it will affect your livelihood if the worst were to happen before Christmas.