Hurricane Season on the Panhandle: Trucks, Trailers and RVs
Storms disrupt fuel, roads and service availability. What to sort out before a system is named.
Hurricane season on the Gulf Coast is a fact of operating here, and the things that make a bad week worse are all things that could have been dealt with in advance.
Before the season
- Get deferred maintenance done. When a storm is named, every shop and every mobile outfit in the region is booked.
- Check tires properly, including the spares and the trailer tires nobody looks at.
- Load test batteries. Power outages and generator running are hard on them.
- Make sure every unit has current registration and inspection paperwork aboard.
- Establish where equipment goes if it has to be moved.
- Confirm fuel arrangements, because fuel is the first thing to run short.
As a storm approaches
- Move equipment out of low-lying and flood-prone yards early rather than late.
- Fuel up before the queues start.
- Secure loose equipment and trailers — an empty trailer is a sail.
- Photograph equipment for insurance before anything happens.
- Know which roads close and when, because evacuation routes get contraflowed.
RVs specifically
An RV is both a liability and an asset in a storm. A liability because it is large, light and catches wind. An asset because it is mobile and it is shelter. If it can be moved out of the track, move it; if it stays, weight it, chock it, and point it into the prevailing wind.
Afterwards
Roads are the problem more than the vehicles are. Debris on the shoulder and in lanes causes tire damage at a rate you would not believe, and standing water hides road damage. Slow down and expect tire and suspension work in the weeks after.
Service availability
Everybody is busy. We run 24/7 through it and we will be straight with you about where you are in the queue rather than promising an hour we cannot hold.
Dispatch answers 24 hours a day at (850) 495-0366. Tell us where you are and what the truck is doing.