I'm not a professional driver any more due to a change in career, however my essential bits from when I was :

Be well rested, check your vehicle before you start.

Ensure you stop for breaks, KNOW your route (or have it all set up before you start).

Keep journeys realistic.

Speeding is tiring and stressful, and will save you virtually nothing in journey times.

Lastly (and this is a biggie, in my opinion) : remember, it isn't personal.

I still drive for work a fair bit as well as personal mileage, regularly making trips down to Surrey from North Wales for work. My longest day of driving ever is 680 miles (to Pitlochry in the Highlands and back).

Interesting thread this could be.

First and foremost no matter how good you think you are, you need a certain amount of luck to stay accident free year after year, we all make mistakes and we all know in our hearts that if the circumstances when we made those mistakes been slightly different the outcome could have been disastrous...those who think that by skill alone they avoid problems are deluding themselves.

What do i do? take my time it's not a race, if you're late don't rush that's fatal, don't let other's idiocy/bullying/aggression/timidity annoy, leave a suitable braking distance for piece of mind and to make life easier, windows and mirrors spotlessly clean and adjusted and used, all round observation, vehicle in good condition clean and pleasant to be in, use indicators properly and exercise lane control, brake gently, use speed appropriately, learn the vehicle it's strong and weak points, learn its handling and driving characteristics without the electronics driving it for you (when it all goes pear shaped they are about as much use as a chocolate teapot), use road knowledge and maps not an electronic toy to route find, lastly take a pride in doing the job as well as you can.

As someone who drives(ish) for a living, having had some of the worse in the past and in later years the better terms and conditions in the industry concentrates the mind wonderfully, a job worth keeping usually leads to more care and attention, everyone's a winner...non vocational drivers will see the results every day even if they don't realise which surprisingly high profile companies pay so badly their staff are regularly working 60/70 hours for a standard week's pay.

Refreshments, plan suitable breaks in the route and start out that bit earlier, i like a short break en route in the mornings, preferably to include a sausage and bacon roll and latte at a Greggs (other refreshment establishments are available) at a half way point.

Well I was never really a professional driver. I was a GP who drove to make home visits but most of my mileage was and is for my own purposes.

Despite this I have 3 ideas to contribute to this thread.

1) Second only to the influence of drugs and alcohol, loss of emotional control seems a major cause of poor driving and accidents. Monitor your emotional state whilst driving and amend it or stop and rest.

2) You can always drive better than you are. Be constantly self-critical, be prepared to admit to your faults and amend them.

3) Never drive onto a section of the road that you cannot see, or are not confident that you would be able to come to a halt in time on the unseen road. Drivers who clip the corner off turning right at junctions, drivers on narrow roads and those overtaking take note.

Good thread - thanks Scot for starting it.

I was never a professional driver but for many years of my career I did 20,000+ business miles a year. My strongest thought on this is that you drive much better if you're not in a hurry.

Difficult always to achieve this, but it's worth a try, often simply by leaving more time (say, half as much again) than you think you need.

I've rarely been one to go on a 'sunday drive' 'just because I can' - for me driving is a means of transport to get from place A to place B, with the journey being the necessary evil not the unexpected pleasure. So, anything that makes the jouney take longer is viewed unfavourably.

But this does not mean I should suffer discomfort in the process, I do try to avoid driving tired, unduly hungry / thirsty / wanting a wee (as I get older I notice this more!) or in a way that will get others photographic evidence that I was there. Anyway, speed is a balance between safety, journey time and the fuel cost v mph. Also important is a good temperature, using heating / airconditoning or even the open sunroof all contribute here. (Pity I cannot get a warm feet/cool face set up like used to be available years ago). If on a longer journey I will plan a stop en route, and wash my face with water, it's a great refresher. I do like to listen to the radio, or the cd player, with a 6 disc system and a random option this gives a varied play list.

Safe arrival is of course the overiding aim, but a nice relaxed drive, hopefully with the cruise control (taking the pressure off the right foot) set to a fair speed for the road and conditions and no holdups. I'm not a great fan for letting people in, especially slower moving vehicles, unless there is a safety need to do so. I nearly always indicate and do use lane 1 if it is free and safe to do so - sometimes even when there is someone parked in lane 3.

If I do need to go slowly, eg looking for somewhere I am mindful of other road users and will pull over / pull in if safe to do so so that I don't unduly impeed the flow of traffic.

Edited by Smileyman on 27/04/2015 at 22:07