STRAFFORD, Mo. – Operating an eighteen-wheeler is hard enough.

Driving one in the winter, with bad road conditions can be a challenge.

“I’m seeing that there’s a lot of light trailers,” trucker Tracy Stone said. “If people are going too fast for the winds, they’re sliding around. There are cars shooting around us. I mean, nobody’s going really the speed that we should be going on these roads.”

KOLR 10 spoke to truckers in Strafford, some who are waiting out the weather and some who can’t.

“A friend of mine told me to not waste my time.” Carl Marshall said. [My buddy] said it’s bad down at Fort Smith. He told me to tell him to stay up here, don’t even worry about coming down.”

“I got to be [in Ohio] before nine in the morning, so I got to get my 600 something miles done between now and then.” Shane Rogers said.

Drivers say they tend to expect the unexpected on the roads when conditions worsen.

“You can’t really plan things like the weather, you just got to do your best,” Rogers said. “That’s where training really takes over.”

“Once you get into it, if you get out and slow down, you control it a lot better if you slow down,” Marshall said.

“I just take it slow. I mean, even if I’ve got to go 15, 20 miles an hour. If the traffic wants to go around me, then go around me, but we’ve got to be safe.” Stone said.

Stone says she takes extra precautions because of some precious cargo that always rides with her.

“I’ve got two cats and two dogs in the truck. They’re all rescues except for one of them.”