Semi Truck Interior Cleaning

Your heavy duty truck serves as your mobile workspace as well as a resting place, sometimes, and it's easy for its interior to get dirty as the miles fly by. If you spend a lot of time on the road, the mess may grow faster than you anticipate, which can lead to making a sloppy impression and also, too much clutter can be dangerous if it impedes visibility or if something rolls under your brake pedal, for example. Having a dirty truck is also just plain unpleasant to spend hours of your time in.

For drivers and fleet managers both, it's essential to follow best practices for getting semi truck interiors clean. Clean cabs mean happy drivers and impressed customers, who see a tidy truck as a sign that you really care about your business.

Your local truck dealer, Bayview Trucks & Equipment, has multiple locations across Atlantic Canada to best serve our customers. To help you keep your truck in good shape, we've provided this guide to cleaning the interior. Come chat with our staff if you have any further questions!

Throw Away Trash

The first step to any cleaning job is to get rid of trash. Anyone who's ever been on a road trip knows how fast food wrappers can pile up, and this is equally well-known to busy truck drivers. You'll want to take out recyclables like cans and bottles and papers and properly dispose of these, then get a trash bag to throw everything else in. Crumbs and stains in your truck can impart a bad smell as the food breaks down, and they can also invite pests like ants into your truck. Keep a small trash receptacle in your truck cab to help you stay on top of trash, and try to empty it when you stop for gas or a break.

Vacuum Carpets & Upholstery

You won't be able to pick up every piece of debris in your truck by hand, so now that you've cleared out the larger portion of it, it's time to remove floor mats and seat covers so you can thoroughly vacuum. You'll want to use a long attachment in order to get into every crevice where crumbs and other detritus may have fallen. Shake off your floor mats and vacuum them if they're carpet, or spray them down with a hose if they're plastic before you put them back in your cab.

Clean Hard Surfaces

Now it's time to use a soft brush attachment to get dust out of your console and dashboard. You'll probably want to wipe them down with a damp cloth as well. If you do use a cleaning solution, make sure it's gentle and appropriate for the plastic or other material at hand. Don't use glossy cleaners that impart a sheen to your dashboard, as they could reflect sunlight and create glare issues that occlude your visibility.

Leather seats require more care than simple upholstery will, so you'll need to invest in an appropriate cleaner to avoid staining or damaging the material. Use a clean, soft towel with leather to prevent scratches.

Finally, apply a glass cleaner to your windows and dashboard on both sides and wipe them down thoroughly. Newspaper can be used to clean glass, but don't use it on tinted glass, as it may remove the tint. Make sure your cleaner doesn't leave behind streaks or film that will make it harder to see the road and cars around you.

Make Cleaning Part Of Your Routine

The best way to keep your truck cab in great shape is to implement a cleaning routine that's easy to follow and becomes a habit for you. Store cleaning supplies behind your seat in a milk crate or Rubbermaid bin and pick up trash as you go. You can reduce the amount of time you ultimately spend cleaning by keeping things tidy on a daily basis.

We hope this guide to cleaning the interior of your semi truck helps you to stay organized and tidy on the road if you're a driver, and to keep your fleet in peak condition if you're a manager. To see a great selection of heavy duty trucks for sale, including Kenworth trucks, stop into one of our many locations to browse our truck inventory. Bayview Trucks & Equipment serves New Brunswick and Nova Scotia along with the rest of Atlantic Canada.