HCV cares about your safety on the road. Here are a few tips on how you can maintain your sanity and safety on the road while keeping your insurance costs down. With a little planning, every journey can be a safe one.

1. Buckle up
   This will help save you from injury, as well as avoid traffic fines.
2. Make frequent stops
   While your business relies on getting your load to its destination on time, take frequent rests. Driving when tired can put you at risk. Take full advantage of rest stops, meals, and refuelling stops as an important opportunity to use the restroom and stretch your legs. Regular breaks will re-energize you for the remainder of your journey.
3. Limit your speed to 80 km/h
   As you know HCV has a clause on your policy limiting your driving speed to 90 km/h. The reason for this is that heavy commercial vehicles take longer to slow down and stop than light vehicles. Research has proved that 90 km/h is the safest maximum speed for a truck like yours. So avoid injury to yourself, other road users and your truck, as well as costly insurance claims and don't exceed the speed limit of 80 km/h, no matter how straight and empty the road ahead.
4. Do not drink or take drugs
   You may think this is obvious, but you will be surprised how many road users still take intoxicants while driving putting themselves and others at risk of death and injury.
5. Listen to the radio
   Listening to the radio will provide you with company and keep your mind active while on the long haul. However if you play it too loud or change CDs, tapes or radio stations while driving, it can distract you and cause an accident. So wait until you stop before you do so.

It's difficult to eat regular healthy meals when you're on the road. Firstly, truck stops do not always offer healthy food on their menus making it impossible to find the right kind of food to keep your body running at its best.

The truth is though, if you take the time to look for healthy food and pay a little more, you are making an investment in the most valuable asset you have; your body.

The old line “you are what you eat” is actually very accurate. The food we eat can have a huge impact on our health and wellbeing. A balanced, healthy diet provides a supply of all the essential nutrients in the right quantities for health.

By eating a healthy diet and being physically active, we can maintain a healthy body weight and reduce our risk of developing diet-related illnesses, such as heart disease and cancer. However, although healthy eating is pretty straightforward, there's much confusion about what constitutes a healthy diet, as well as a belief by many that they're already consuming a healthy diet.

Take a look at these interesting research findings:

• 69.3% of people think that their diets are healthy
• 71% of people agree with the statement 'I do not need to make changes to the food I eat, it's already healthy enough.'

The truth is that most of us need to improve our eating habits. Especially if your job means you spend a lot of time sitting in your truck.

Like fat, sugar is a concentrated source of energy and also has a bad reputation. The psychological benefits of eating foods such as jam, sweets, cakes, chocolate, soft drinks, biscuits and ice cream are fairly obvious. They taste lovely and feel like a special treat. However, it's important to keep them as just that - an occasional, special treat.

Why?

1. Sugary foods often go hand in hand with fatty foods. Think cakes, biscuits, chocolate and pies.
2. Sugar interacts with the plaque on your teeth and has been proven to cause tooth decay.

The following is an overview of the basic essentials you need to incorporate in your daily eating plan. That does not mean you should be sitting down with a pen and pencil writing a plan of what you will eat for the day. Rather bear this in mind next time you stop for a break and a bite to eat.

Your body needs the following essentials:

Energy
Like all machines, your body needs a constant supply of energy or fuel. Just like a truck without fuel, without energy, your bodily functions would be impossible. Energy is derived from the energy-bearing nutrients in food, such as unrefined carbohydrates (wholegrain rice, wholemeal bread, porridge oats and wholewheat pasta), small amounts of fat and unrefined sugar (not the kind you find in coldrinks and coffee, but rather the sugar from fresh fruits).

Protein
As well as providing energy, protein is vital for growth and repair.

Vitamins and minerals
Although only required in minute amounts, these are the cornerstones of good health and are essential for many body functions. Without them, key processes are unable to operate.

Fibre
This is a blanket term for all unabsorbed food that goes through the digestive tract. It's vital to help stimulate the bowels to excrete waste products on a regular basis, ensuring absorption of nutrients from food occurs in a controlled and gradual fashion.

Research guidelines recommend that fats make up no more than 35 per cent of your diet. For the average man that means 100g of fat per day. In reality, though, you probably have much higher fat intakes.

Ideally, you should eat sugary and fatty foods sparingly. If you'd like to cut down on fatty and sugary foods, follow these suggestions:

• Snack on fresh or dried fruit rather than biscuits and chocolate
• Trim any visible fat off meat and poultry
• Buy lean cuts of meat and reduced-fat minces
• Ditch the frying pan - try poaching, steaming, grilling and baking instead
• Swap whole milk for semi-skimmed or skimmed alternatives
• If you use lard, butter or hard margarine, switch to vegetable oil.

Links between diet and disease are better understood than ever before, and there's a large body of evidence showing that what you eat has an enormous impact on your health.

Due to your lifestyle while you're on the road, your eating habits have changed – for the worse. You now rely more on convenience fast foods rather than fresh foods.

Remember, there's no such thing as a bad or good food - moderation and balance is the key. Food should be enjoyed - it's possible to eat delicious, tasty food that's healthy too.

The aim of a healthy diet and lifestyle is to ensure you're fit, healthy and full of vitality in the short term, with healthy eyes, immune system, abundant energy and an ideal body weight. In the long term, the aim is to minimise the risk of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis.

To become and remain healthy, our bodies need good food, and the time and energy to process it and use it. Healthy eating provides all the necessary nutrients to create and repair tissues, to sustain a healthy immune system and to enable the body to perform at its very best.

Foods to keep you alert

1. Eat small, frequent meals to keep your blood sugar and energy levels steady.
2. Avoid sweets and sugary foods.
3. Choose meals and snacks that emphasize protein over carbohydrate. Protein-rich meals and snacks keep your energy on an even keel.
4. Limit caffeine. Cut back gradually.
5. Water, water, water! Keep a litre of water in your cab to help maintain your energy.
6. Choose healthy snacks such as nuts, raisins, low-fat yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, low-fat milk, crunchy fresh fruits and veggies.

Especially when you're on the road. Water is one of the most important parts of your diet. Without fluid your body can only survive for a couple of days.

Water is needed to flush waste products from the body, to keep the skin, hair and body organs healthy, to produce digestive enzymes, and to enable the body to glean all the beneficial nutrients from the foods and drinks you consume.

Many truckers on the road don't drink enough water - you need at least eight glasses of water every day.

While HCV recommends truckers look after their health and eat a balanced diet, they also caution that eating while driving is more dangerous than using a hand held cell phone while driving.

1. Soft Drinks – spilling your coke as you pull out to pass could be a deadly distraction. Open containers holding liquids - hot or cold - can cause a lack of concentration when spilled across a shirt or lap.
2. Chakalaka - imagine the disaster as messy tomato gravy oozes onto your clothes and you become more focused on the spill than the highway.
3. Fried chicken - greasy hands are a sure distraction as you tend to constantly try to clean them while driving. Grease on a steering wheel is almost impossible to get off.
4. Hot Soups - eating soup while trying to manipulate a gearshift is not sensible. It's the equivalent to a circus juggling act, and a sure recipe for disaster.
5. So what is the most hazardous food a trucker can consume? The offender is one of the world's most popular beverages and the one with which most truckers start their mornings:
6. Coffee - Uncovered drinks generally are the greatest offenders for unexpected splashes and spills. Coffee spills are the worst as hot temperatures can cause serious burns that divert your focus.
   

Drinking and driving can cost motorists more than a lost licence, a fine and jail time.

Trucker's or motorists driving under the influence of alcohol will have problems claiming from insurance.
"If you drink and drive, you are driving without insurance and that leaves you liable to a whole host of undesired consequences," said the CEO of one of the large insurance underwriters in South Africa.

He said the financial impact of a multiple pile-up caused by a "tipsy" driver is huge and can potentially run into millions of Rands. Financially, it can ruin your life, he said.

"As a major insurer, we know from many years of experience that consumers often pay insufficient regard to exclusion clauses in their policies. A key policy exclusion in motor insurance stipulates that driving with a proven alcohol level above the statutory limit invalidates your cover."

The growing number of imported vehicles in South Africa, and the increasingly sophisticated automotive-design features, has significantly increased the cost of vehicle repairs. The price of a new windscreen and airbag replacement -- excluding the cost of bodywork repair -- could exceed R50 000 on a luxury vehicle. Imagine being personally liable for that cost as a result of you having one too many with your lunch?

Drivers found to be over the legal limit will be arrested and the maximum penalty for drinking and driving is a fine of R120 000 and/or six years' imprisonment. What's more, your driver's licence may be suspended and the Asset Forfeiture Unit could confiscate your vehicle.

Recent statistics show that more than 45% of drivers killed in road accidents had blood-alcohol levels above the legal limit.

Concentration of alcohol in blood:
0,05 gram per 100 millilitres – regular drivers
0,02 gram per 100 millilitres – professional drivers

Breath alcohol content:
0,24 milligrams per 1000 millilitres – regular drivers
0,10 milligrams per 1000 millilitres ¬– professional drivers

It varies from person to person depending on what alcohol you consume, your body mass and your constitution.

Research proves that most men and women exceeded the legal limit of 0,05g/dl after two beers or two tots of brandy.

It is important to understand that alcohol affects your cognitive functioning. Driving requires good multitasking with the driver having to concentrate not only on steering the vehicle, but also on road conditions, other vehicles, pedestrians, signs and traffic lights.

Alcohol can also contribute towards inattentional blindness, which is the inability to detect unexpected objects that appear in the visual field.

Even a fairly light shower, especially after a prolonged dry period, can make the road surface extremely slippery as it mingles with the film of dust, rubber and oil on the roadway.

In addition, striking a puddle at high speed can lead to aquaplaning, which results in the loss of steering as the tyres actually lose contact with the road.

Here are some essential tips to remember when driving in the wet,

• Reduce speed
• Increase your following distance
• Switch headlights to low beam
• Concentrate

Remember when motorists drink and drive, it is no accident, but a deliberate tragedy waiting to happen. Please don't take the wheel when you have had alcohol or any other drug.

Always wear a seat belt and keep children suitably constrained in the back seat.

Adapt your speed to prevailing conditions. Driving too fast or too slow can be dangerous since both result in unnecessary passing – by you and other drivers.

The golden rule is: stick to following distance of at least two seconds. This way you will be able to spot potential hazards in the traffic flow much sooner.

Remember it is patently impossible to maintain proper control while holding a cell phone in one hand.

Here are two important tips for changing road conditions.

Tip # 1: Slow down when visibility is poor
When there is insufficient street lighting at night, when the sun is low on the horizon, in mist, in rain, or during veld fires or storms. Reduce your speed to below the speed limit as these conditions reduce vision and prevent a driver from reacting in time to hazardous situations.

Tip # 2: Slow down when road conditions are not good.
Driving at high speed on a wet road surface, on gravel or through roadworks will cause a vehicle to skid if you have to brake or change direction suddenly. You have then lost control as the vehicle will continue skidding at the same speed and in the same direction as it was travelling.