Driving when you’re tired can be extremely dangerous and is one of the biggest causes of road accidents in the UK. It is therefore important to understand the risks of driving when tired and how you can avoid the dangers.
Here are some top tips to prevent you falling asleep at the wheel:
- Take a break from driving every two hours – Try and plan a 15 minute break every 2 hours of your trip. A short stop over gives you a chance to get out of the car and wake yourself up a bit. Take a short walk, get some food and just generally wake your body up.
- Have a good night’s sleep before any long drive – This probably sounds obvious, but if you know you have a long journey, make sure you have an early night so that you are as fresh as possible before you start.
- Avoid making long journeys between midnight and 6am – This is when you are at your most vulnerable and most likely to fall asleep. If you can, try and stick to daytime driving only.
- Drink coffee or high caffeine drinks – Drinking caffeine can help wake you up and increase alertness. Remember though that after the effects wear off you are likely to fall into a slump and become tired again, so keep topping your caffeine levels up to combat sleepiness effectively.
- Share the driving – Whenever possible share the driving with others in the car. Every few hours switch the driver so that each passenger has a chance to relax and sleep.
If you feel tired when you are driving, turning up the music and opening the window can feel effective for a short period of time, however in the long run this will do little to prevent you falling asleep.
Remember – if you follow this advice and still feel tired behind the wheel, stop and take a nap. This is the most effective way to recharge and is the safest option for both you and other road users.
April 12th, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Avis is a rip off. I was quoted one price when I booked on the website however when I went to the rental location and returned the car I was charged double the price.
I will never ever get car from avis.
April 13th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Hi Johurul-
Sorry to here this! You shouldn’t have received 2 different prices unless you added any extras onto your rental when collecting your car.
Could you please send your reservation details to me at: comments@avis.co.uk and I’ll ask our customer service team to look into this for you.
Many thanks
Sabrina
April 18th, 2012 at 8:24 am
Hi!
Nout sure if this really is the right channel for complaints but I see Avis UK site provides only a web-based e-mail channel:
http://www.avis.co.uk/CustomerService
..from which the only response is the standard get-out-clauses:
“THIS IS AN AUTOMATED EMAIL – PLEASE DO NOT REPLY AS WE WILL BE UNABLE TO RESPOND”
“Thank you for your e-mail which has been received by Avis. It has been automatically sent to the correct department for action and response. You will hear from us again very soon.”
So I have waited patiently for seven days for a response about the poor quality of the rental car provided, and now have no other channel but this to make a follow-up to my complaint.
Is this how Avis tries harder (to annoy customers)?
Is there a direct e-mail address to your customer service team?
Thanks for trying harder!
April 18th, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Hi Keith-
Sorry to hear you haven’t heard back from our customer service team.
I’m also sorry to hear you weren’t completely satisfied with your Avis rental.
Could you please confirm when you sent your email and I will find out the status from our customer service team.
Thanks
Sabrina