Road trips for both personal and business can be great fun! You get to enjoy driving through various destinations, seeing all the sights as well as discovering new places along the way. You can bring friends and family members with you for personal trips or colleagues with you for business trips to make the journey more exciting. Put together your favourite playlist on Spotify and the journey will be complete in no time – just remember to plan breaks throughout the journey to rest.
Before going on your long-distance drive, there are a few things you want to consider to ensure your vehicle is up to standards and to make the drive more enjoyable and stress-free. From checking your truck tyres or car tyres to ensuring you are stocked up with food and have planned stops, below we have put together our guide on things to consider before driving a long distance.
Plan your rest stops
When driving long distances for both personal and business pleasure, it’s so important that you plan your rest stops before starting the journey. Driving long distances can fatigue you, causing you to lose concentration and feel tired on the road, which can be very dangerous. Before your journey, give yourself plenty of time to browse Google Maps for any stops along the way which can break up your journey. Aim for a stop every few hours where you can enjoy a coffee break, pop to the toilet and get something to eat. When going on a long-distance drive, you’ll find many service stops, so make sure you find the ones with the best restaurants and facilities to stop off at.
Check your vehicle
It goes without saying, before driving a long distance, spend some time checking over your vehicle for any issues that could occur. Check your oil levels, and your screen wash levels, test your brakes, ensure your lights are working, and your tyres tread and of course, fill up your fuel to its max. If you have any concerns about your vehicle, you can always pop into your local garage and ask them to take a quick look over it. You don’t want to make your trip more exciting by breaking down, you want your music and company to be the excitement.
Get plenty of sleep before your journey
We touched on it above, fatigue can be very dangerous when driving long distances as it reduces your concentration levels. For this reason, plan to get plenty of sleep before your journey. It is recommended you get around 7-8 hours of sleep a day, so depending on what time you are aiming to leave, have this as your benchmark. If you don’t get enough sleep the day before, you may want to consider adding additional rest stops to reduce the chances of you getting too fatigued.
What things would you recommend before driving a long distance? Which of the above tips do you find most useful? Let us know in the comment box below. We