Driving on ice- and snow-packed roads is never a good idea, but Oncor employees rarely have a choice when winter weather creates power outages.

To be ready for winter and the likely poor road conditions, Oncor begins preparing its fleet of hundreds of bucket trucks and heavy equipment trailers several months before the weather turns cold.

“Anything related to ice is a treacherous event,” said Clint Whitfield, Supervisor, Fleet Operations & Maintenance. ”It’s not really something that anybody should want to drive on unless they absolutely have to. But in our case, that’s not always an option.”

Oncor service centers across our territory work with local fleet repair centers to ensure our trucks and vehicles are safe and ready to take on slick roads and hazardous conditions.

With each vehicle, mechanics work through a lengthy list to check items like tires, fluid levels, lights, wipers, towing equipment, engine hoses and belts, vehicle frame and more, Whitfield said.

“Our vehicles need to be ready to safely react to any sort of weather or winter events we might face,” Whitfield said. “Our job is to respond to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. Our people and our vehicles have to be ready to roll.”