Category Archives: Winter Driving

Driving on Canadian Highways

Road closuresDriving on Canadian highways has proven to be challenging due to the elements of weather. This winter created icy conditions on the road such as in the case in Sicamous, British Columbia. There were also massive snowfalls that occurred in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The icy condition in Sicamous, BC. on the Trans Canada Highway had caused fatal accidents and highway closures. The accidents were mainly due to poor road conditions and over speeding by drivers. The solution provided for fixing this problem is the upgrading of the highway. Before that can happen, the use of speed limit signs that are electronic were being advocated so that potential car accidents could be avoided.

The snowfall in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick made driving in those areas a nightmare. The areas that experienced snowfalls were up to 60 centimeters. New Brunswick had experienced near zero visibility. Tow trucks were on the scene, driving on the highway was extremely difficult and some routes were being closed because of blowing snow. Warnings were made not to travel on some parts of the Trans Canada highway.

The Nova Scotia area of highway 104 had not been left behind, with a section of the road being closed due to poor visibility with blowing snow. The area that has largely been affected comprises the Cobequid pass between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

All this shows that driving on the Canadian Highways includes facing challenges especially on the areas that have been affected by icy conditions and blowing snow. Thankfully, with warmer temperatures up ahead, let’s hope this is now all behind us.

Call Dr. Hook Towing if you need Roadside Assistance or a Recovery Expert.

Your car’s least favorite things about winter

Winter DrivingGroundhog day has been and gone, and winter is still here.  It’s not showing any signs of going away for good anytime soon.

One of the problems with the gradual approach of spring is that the temperature is inconsistent, which speeds the formation of potholes. While they form all year round, they’re particularly evident at this time of year. The season’s freeze/thaw cycles really bring out the worst in Winnipeg’s roads, causing the pavement crack and then heave upward when water finds its way into the crack, and expands when it becomes ice.  Potholes can be hard to see, and when they get covered in snow or slush, they’re particularly hard to see.  It’s like they’re lying in wait for you to drove over them too fast, and wreck some part of your car.

Icy conditions are quite common, and can be disguised (and made worse) by a thin dusting of snow.  Even if your car is equipped with snow tires, you’ll slide on the ice and face a potential accident.  Fluctuating temperatures (warmer, sunny days and hard freezing nights) can lead to the formation of “black ice”, a clear covering that looks like wet asphalt, but is really a slick coating of ice that’s ready to throw you and your car into the ditch, or worse.

If your car’s made an unscheduled trip off-road, or you’ve got a flat tire, a dead battery, or worse – you’ve had a traffic accident, remember that Dr. Hook is here to help you.  In an emergency, call us 24 hours a day at 956-HOOK (4665) or Toll Free 1-800-561-4665.  Better yet, sign up online up now for our roadside assistance program, to get the peace of mind that comes with knowing your towing needs will be take care of in an emergency.

 

Dr. Hook Won’t Leave You Out In The Cold

Dr. Hook Towing“We wouldn’t want to leave anyone out in the cold, especially in these extreme weather conditions. This winter has been extremely busy, but we do our best to make sure we get to our customers as fast as we can”, President Nick Roscoe.

At the mid-point of another Manitoba winter, we thought we would take a moment to share some of our client experiences so far this season:

On January 6, 2015, we received a call from Adrienne. She told us, “To the driver and CSR’s from Sunday,  the service was amazing and very quick.” Adrienne is a long-time member of a well-known Manitoba auto service company and was amazed with how much better she was treated with Dr. Hook. She wanted to take the time to let us know what an awesome job we are were doing.

Another customer called on December 29, 2014. She was so impressed with our prompt service and wanted to let us know that Driver 494 is an awesome representative of the company. “He was very helpful and polite, and just a great guy.” She was also amazed that we were able to get someone to her location within 30 minutes.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for your business and for trusting Dr. Hook to help you with roadside assistance.

Have we helped you recently? What do you think of our service? We would love to hear from you. Submit a testimonial of your own or read more here.

Pothole Season has Started! Beware!

Good news Winnipeg, the overnight parking ban has been lifted!

Bad news Winnipeg, pothole season has officially begun.

After a pre-season that already proved hazardous thanks to a couple days in and around 0, the Winnipeg road landscape now looks to be fully picked apart by the remnants of a soon-to-be-departed winter (once the snow stops falling of course, but more on this in a moment).

Potholes are unfortunately unavoidable as a phenomenon, and can be downright treacherous for drivers. Depending on the size of a pothole, the speed of the driver and the condition of tires, damage can occur with nary a moment’s notice and be as severe as busting tires, cracking bumpers and throwing off wheel alignment.

What makes potholes worse, now, is that with the snowfall we experienced over the last couple days, they’ve been unfortunately hidden from plain sight, and with slush developing from the melt we’ll have with above-0 temperatures on Sunday and Monday, pools will start to form in these spots, making them hard to differentiate from a paved road.

We strongly advise all drivers to stay calm on the streets and keep your speed levels down. While you may have the temptation to plow through streets at higher speeds after cutting your km/hr by 10 or 15 during the slippery snow-coated conditions of the past few months, we’re not in a safe zone yet.

Drive Safe Manitoba!

The Regrettable Perils of Winter in Winnipeg

Accidents are always regrettable, no matter whether they happen to a valued Dr. Hook customer or to a Dr. Hook employee.

The recent story of one of our employees intentionally neglecting damage he caused to a customer’s vehicle is something that we feel we must address, if only for our own peace of mind.

Dr. Hook does not employ the type of person who would ignore something like this. We consider ourselves to be a company with integrity, and the thousands of people that we help year-round can attest to the helpful and caring nature that we always strive to exhibit.

Our ratio of safety during particularly busy winters such as this one speaks for itself. Our employees do their best to assess situations in a matter of moments, knowing they have many other calls ahead of them. Our employees are only human – but we can assure you that they are not intent on making an already distressing situation worse for our customers.

This was not something that was done maliciously. This is precisely what Dr. Hook deals with on a daily basis – an accident. Never fun, never the preferred way to spend one’s day, but something that has to be dealt with nonetheless – and we feel that we did so fairly.

Colder Temperatures Return – Adjust Your Driving Winnipeg!

Chances are you awoke this morning to a bit of a chill – that’s because Winter has come back to Winnipeg.

While the last week has had more moderate temperatures, which even allowed for some slush and melt to develop, this week we are back to freeze-over temperatures.

Unfortunately, this means that slick roads can develop again, right after a snowfall like we saw last night and can cause some havoc on Winnipeg roads.

Perhaps more importantly, it also means that drivers need to adjust back to ‘winter driving’ habits. For a period we were able to zip down streets at higher speeds, not worrying as much about fishtailing. At least for the next week, that can’t happen, lest you end up needing roadside assistance.

Remember Winnipeg – driving alert to the conditions and the vehicles around you is the number one way to ensure your travels are safe and sound.

Stay warm Winnipeg!

Dr. Hook Will Be Out in Winnipeg Tonight for New Years Service

While tonight’s festivities roll on, we do want to remind Winnipeg that New Year’s Eve comes with its challenges on the road, especially for 2013.

Most Winnipeggers, by now, know that there is an inherent caution that comes with travel on NYE 2013 – people for whatever reason will err in their judgement and unfortunately pull-overs by Winnipeg Police do occur due to intoxication.

We say this every year but it certainly bears repeating – if you have any, and we mean any trepidation of getting behind the wheel tonight, then we strongly encourage cabbing, using Operation Red Nose or finding a designated driver who has not consumed a single ounce of alcohol.

But the greater concern this year is the unseasonably cold temperatures. The unfortunate reality is that heading out to a party could mean not being able to plug in your car and coming out, at say 1:30am, to a car that won’t start.

If this situation does happen to you, don’t hesitate to contact Dr. Hook Towing in Winnipeg. We will be on call for you tonight should you run into any problems and require our roadside assistance.

Have a Happy and Safe New Year celebration!

Stay Safe This Holiday Season, Winnipeg

Winnipeg is just about to head into its busiest traffic season – the holiday season.

Yes, Christmas Day travel is limited but Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve are three of the highest days of the year in terms of traffic volume, and when traffic is high it means there is a higher propensity for traffic accidents.

With winter conditions being what they are this year, we cannot emphasize enough that you should take extreme caution on the road. By now we’re fairly accustomed to the concerns of drunk drivers, but we’re not as cognizant of the distracted driver or the road-rage driver. Between Smartphones (despite the legal implications) and the mad dash drivers make to beat the lineups for door crashers, Winnipeg turns into a free-for-all on roads which can be extremely hazardous.

We know the anxiousness that comes with the season, but we highly, highly recommend that it is better to take care and arrive late than to try to rush and run the risk of needing our trucks.

Have a safe holiday season.

Winnipeg Residential Parking Ban Lifted, But…

The City of Winnipeg has lifted the residential parking ban.

To the delight of all Winnipeggers, plowing of streets down to concrete is all but done on side streets and we’re free once again to park overnight on front streets.

However, we’d still like to caution against this.

The unfortunate reality of parking in front of one’s residence, especially in the harsh winter conditions we’re currently in, is not the best choice to make. With regulations preventing one from extending a cable across sidewalks, plugging in from the front of your home is not an option.

As such, leaving your car on streets can mean a dead battery when you go out in the early morning.

Yes, we know the temptation – head in through the front door means less time scrambling through the garage, less noise to wake up everyone (if you have a creaky door like many of us do) and fewer things to possibly trip over, especially if you’re coming home in the wee hours (say like you will be doing in all likelihood on New Years’ Eve), but the reality is leaving your car without energy flowing in can mean a frozen four wheels in the morning, and no one wants to have to deal with that when we’re already late for work, the kids are howling or it’s just plain too damn cold out!

So with this in mind, Winnipeg, we highly encourage you to keep your car in your garages, on your car pads, or on your driveway where you can plug in.

If you do end up with a dead battery, Call Dr. Hook right away at 204 956-4665. We’ll help you get your car back in working order before you know it.

Stay warm, Winnipeg!

Remedies for Frozen Car Doors

If there’s anything worse than a back lane or street that hasn’t been plowed, making Winnipeg roads torturous, it’s not being able to get into your car in the first place.

We’re not talking about locking your keys in the car or forgetting them at the office after security locks up; instead we’re talking about that rather unfortunate where snow and ice have built up so much that you literally can’t open the door.

This is one of those cases where home remedies may be your best solution.

One of the tricks we always hear about  is using a hot air dryer to melt the ice buildup. It’s pretty practical if it can be achieved, but that can be hard to do if you’re parked away from a power outlet or, you know, have a hot air dryer.

So we crawled the web in search of some other handy tips for opening your car, and here are a few home remedies for your frozen four-wheel.

1. Praise Lifehacker for this gem – hand sanitizer, which seemingly everyone carries these days, can be used as a lock de-icer.

2. WikiHow offers up five suggestions (including our aforementioned hot air dryyer), the simplest? Push on your car door to break the frozen seal.

3. Catalogs.com, appropriately, has a variety of methods listed. Heating a key with a lighter, if available, isn’t a bad step.

Of course, lock de-icer is still the best solution, but if you don’t have this at the ready, then you now have some more solutions in your back pocket.

Stay warm Winnipeg!