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Tips For Long-Distance Driving
Australia has well over half a million kilometres of road, so we’re lucky enough to be able to answer the call of the road and just head out to drive and drive and drive. It’s a road trip paradise, where you can drive through 35 degrees of longitude (or three time zones) without any hassles with passports and visas and all the rest of the palaver involved with driving long distances in places like Europe, where 35 degrees of longitude will take you through a minimum of five countries (the route that covers this many lines on the map crossing the least borders will take you through France, Germany, Poland, Belarus or Ukraine and Russia).
Some people go on long road trips for fun – for them, the trip there is part of the holiday or even the holiday itself. For others, it’s more of a necessity, as their job requires it, or the family is so big that it’s cheaper to shove everyone in the Honda Odyssey and drive from A to B rather than flying. But no matter what your situation is, it pays to be prepared and possibly even to change your driving style.
- If possible, don’t drive alone. Have someone with you who will be able to share the driving or, at the very least, help relieve the monotony of the more boring bits of scenery by talking to you, or scream loudly if you look like you’re falling asleep at the wheel.
- Stay hydrated. No matter how good your air-con system is, you are going to need fluids. It’s a mistake to limit your fluid intake while driving long distance so you don’t have to stop to pee all the time. If you’re dehydrated, you may end up making dumb decisions. OK, don’t guzzle vast quantities but don’t underdo it.
- Plan to stop for a break here and there rather than doing it all in one long bash. Have a look at the map before you set out and have a think about where would be a good spot for a break. However, your stops along the way don’t have to be at settlements – you can stop in the middle of nowhere and admire the sheer expanse of the world.
- Fatigue is your enemy, especially on a long straight stretch of road. Taking breaks and sharing the driving can help relieve the fatigue, but there are a few other tips that help. Avoid eating carb-heavy meals, as these often make you feel sleepy. Also don’t use some driver aids such as cruise control, as if you’re more active in your driving, you’re less likely to nod off.
- Caffeine is a double-edged sword. It may make you more alert but it will also stimulate your bladder.
- Be prepared for the worst. If you broke down in the middle of nowhere, would you be able to cope? Pack more water and food than you think you are likely to need just in case. A jerry can full of petrol/diesel in the boot wouldn’t go amiss as well, especially if you’re doing the Nullabor.
- Choose your music wisely. A long-haul drive is not the time for slow, relaxing music, as this may soothe you off to sleep, especially at the end of the day. Go for the faster and more upbeat music, or else keep your mind stimulated with a talking book.
- If you start feeling tense and achy in your neck and shoulders, sleepy, hungry or desperate for the lavatory, stop, even if you haven’t reached your planned stopping point.
- Let someone know your estimated time of arrival (approximate) and the route you’re taking so if something goes badly wrong, they’ll know when and where to start looking.
- Try not to drive long distances at night, especially if you’ve been driving most of the day. The road is even more hypnotic at night, with the constant, regular flash of the centre line and the cats-eyes and little else to look at… a sure-fire recipe for getting into a trance state.
- Better late than never. You are not in a race, so don’t try to beat the “official” time suggested by the AAA (e.g. 1 day and 16 hours non-stop for Sydney to Perth).
The Logic of Logbooks
There’s been a lot of furore about the changes to the Fringe Benefit Tax rules – what’s it going to do to the car sales industry, what it’s going to mean for companies who want to retain their employees, what it’s going to mean for the economy in general and so forth. My fellow-blogger Dave has posted quite a few very informative articles on the topic ().
However, let’s have a wee think about the small implications. Not the big ones that discuss whether or not the changes in the rules will affect what’s left of the Australian car manufacturing industry but the ones that affect what you and I will have to do if our company is going to provide us with a novated lease under the new system.
One of the key changes is that when it comes to tax time, you can’t just say that 20% of the kilometres driven were personal and the rest were for business. We’ve all got to use log books. A lot of people were already on the logbook method for cars dished out as part of a salary package. If you’re one of these people, you’re probably not going to notice a lot of difference, if any.
The idea behind the logbooks is that some people – OK, make that a lot of people – were using their cars for way more than 20% of the kilometres driven for personal business. This meant that they were paying less fringe benefit tax than they really ought to. The whole idea behind t
he changes was meant to close this loophole so people who weren’t on the logbook system paid a fair amount of tax.
The good news is that keeping a logbook isn’t all that hard. All you have to do is to write in the date of the trip, the purpose of the trip (which you can shorten down to “business” and “personal” rather than trying to fit in “taking Amy to Sarah’s birthday party and picking up a roll of wallpaper from the hardware store on the way back”) and the odometer reading at the end of the trip. Then you have to work out how many clicks the trip took by subtracting the odometer reading at the end of the last trip from the end of the current trip – which requires a good head for mental arithmetic or a handy cellphone with a calculator app. Most of us, however, can rely on the trip computer that most modern cars come with. This sounds fiddly, but it’s not that hard once you’re into the swing of things.
Naturally, people have already come up with smartphone apps for vehicle logbooks. Sole traders and the self-employed already have to keep logbooks, for example, so there’s been plenty of time to develop them. I guess it’s only a matter of time until someone comes up with an app that logs your trips and sends the info directly to the office bean-counters… or Big Brother.
The big thing to know is the difference between what’s considered a work trip and what is considered a personal trip. The real stinger here is that the commute to and from work is not considered to be a work or business trip – it’s a personal trip. If you took the bus to work instead of chugging along in your little Peugeot 206 hatchback or whatever you drive, you’d have to fork out for the bus fare and your employers wouldn’t have to pay your bus fare (in most cases, and we won’t go into the subsidies that some eco-minded businesses have tried here). However, if you have to visit a client, make a delivery, pick up some supplies for the office or something like that, that’s a business trip.
Logbooks aren’t all that hard, so don’t get into a panic if you have to keep one. You can still get a car as part of a salary package deal, and you can still claim some of the mileage back against tax.
Flying Cars – Not Science Fiction Any More
When the year 2000 rolled around amid fears of the Y2K bug making computers and civic systems crash (remember that?), we heard a few people asking “Where are the flying cars?” in a reference to all the guesses that people had made back in the 1950s or so about what transportation would be like in the 21st Century.
Well, the wait is over. The flying car is here, or at least it’s in the USA. This doesn’t mean that Ford Falcons are really able to soar on thermals like their namesakes or that the wings on the Mazda logo are still anything other than metaphorical.
But a flying car has been invented. Or perhaps one could call it a road-worthy light plane.
Surprisingly enough, it’s not Saab that’s put out the first real flying car, in spite of the fact that there are more things with the Saab logo in the air than there are on the roads (that’s just a guess and don’t quote me… but Saab does make everything from fighter planes down to little light planes and is primarily an aircraft company). Instead, it’s a company called Terrafugia that has put wings on cars… or road-legal wheels on a plane.
“Terrafugia” means “escape from the earth” and that’s pretty much what these flying cars are designed to do. And they’re more than just a dream. One was demonstrated at the recent Oshkosh air-show, the Terrafugia Transition. OK, they cost more than a modest family home to buy, but there probably are people out there who are interested and are going to take them on.
So what can the Transition do? Obviously, it can fly and it can go on the road legally. On the road, it looks a bit peculiar – it looks more like an amphibious vehicle with the wings tucked up beside it like the legs of a cricket or praying mantis. A touch of the button extends the wings and the propeller on the back gets ready to spin into action. Hey presto – the car is airborne (watch it here).
Obviously, the Transition isn’t massive. It can carry two people and possibly a set of golf clubs or a wee bit of luggage. The official website says that it can cruise at 160 km/h, although I guess that this is in the air rather than on the road. As a plane, the torque is fairly juicy, of course, as the Transition has to accelerate fast enough to generate the lift needed to get off the ground, and it needs a shade over half a kilometre of runway to get airborne. Once in the air, it has a range of 660 km.
There are dual steering controls – the regular steering wheels and brakes for when the Transition is on the road, and a stick and rudder pedals for steering in three dimensions (i.e. when it’s in the air). There aren’t a lot of other bells and whistles – all the thingummybobs pilots need to fly legally take up the rest of the dashboard.
The Transition fits into an ordinary single garage, so it’s likely to appeal to the sort of pilot who doesn’t want the hassle of carting out a trailer every time they want to take the plane out for a little spin. Obviously, two licences are needed: a PPL (private pilot’s licence) and a driver’s licence.
Don’t look out for these in our car reviews page just yet, though. Maybe in 50 years’ time.
Keep Calm In The Car
Next time you’re at the traffic lights, sneak a peek at your fellow drivers. To judge by their actions, most people seem to forget that when they’re sitting behind the wheel of a car, they’re in a bubble of glass and are visible to everyone around them, tinted glass notwithstanding. They behave as though they’re in solitude, blissful or otherwise. This has to be the reason why heaps of people decide that the traffic lights are the best place to practice a little nasal hygiene (i.e. pick their noses).
And when you stop to think about it, most of us respect the privacy of other people and don’t go gawping in at the drivers around us, any more than we go peering through the neighbours windows. So maybe it’s best that we make the most of that little bit of semi-solitude in our days and find a way to make our commutes calmer.
There are some obvious benefits to driving calmly. Obviously, you avoid road rage problems. However, if you are less aggressive as you drive, you tend to use less petrol and create less wear and tear on all the moving parts. Not to mention what being aggressive and impatient does to you.
So, in the interests of keeping your daily commute a bit calmer and less stressful, here are a few ideas that you might like to try:
- Don’t feel like you have to have the navigation system on all the time. Save it for when you need it. You probably know the way to work by now, don’t you? The fewer voices, beeps and buzzes you have in your environment competing for your attention, the better for you (and you’ll probably drive more safely into the bargain).
- Keep a few healthy nibbles and drinks in your car. Cupholders don’t just fit coffee cups – they fit most hand-held receptacles. Instead of picking up yet another adrenaline-stimulating coffee, why not throw a bottle of fruit juice into the drink holder? Also have a selection of healthy nibbles to snack on as you drive, especially if you have a long commute at the end of the day and are likely to have flagging blood sugar levels in the evening. Chilled glove compartments or consoles are designed for storing chocolate on hot days, aren’t they?
- Make the inside of your car attractive. It’s a pity more car manufacturers haven’t taken a leaf out of the VW Beetle and provided a little bud vase for flowers.
- Pick your sounds with care. Sometimes, the radio with endless doom and gloom in the news is the last thing you want. Choose a playlist to suit your mood (e.g. energetic, lively music in the morning when you want to energize yourself; calm chill-out sounds in the evening). And don’t forget audio books, which can turn a long wait at the lights a chance to hear a bit more of the story.
- Use essential oils – lavender is calming and antiseptic. Make your own car fragrance from lavender oil, white vinegar and water, or blend lavender oil with some regular oil and use it to wipe down the dashboard and steering wheel. If you use a strong enough concentration of oil (e.g. 20 drops to ½ a cup of oil), you’ll also disinfect the bits you touch at the same time.
Level 2, 9 Help Street