Before the Labor Day Road Trip: Check More Than Your Tires
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By Kevin Wilson | Firefighter/Paramedic | Founder, IFAK360
Published September 2, 2026
Labor Day weekend is one of those times when a little preparation can make a big difference. Before a road trip, most of us know the routine: check the tires, fill the tank, make sure the oil and other fluids are good, charge the phones, load everything up, and get moving.
Those checks matter. AAA reports that during last year's Labor Day holiday period, it responded to more than 404,000 requests for roadside assistance nationwide. Dead batteries, flat tires, emergency towing, and lockouts were among the most common problems.
But there's another part of road-trip preparation that's easy to overlook. We spend a lot of time preparing the vehicle, but we should prepare the people riding in it too.
Before a long drive, we make sure the vehicle has what it needs to get there. We check the fuel, tires, battery, and fluids because we don't want to discover a problem halfway through the trip. It makes sense to give the people riding inside the same consideration. Do we have enough water and food if the drive takes longer than expected? Is everyone comfortable for a long day in the vehicle and prepared if the weather changes? Do we have the medications we need, a first aid kit we can actually get to, and a plan for getting help if something goes wrong?
Being prepared is really about thinking through problems in advance. You can't plan for every setback, but you can plan for many of them. A flat tire, a dead battery, a traffic delay, forgotten medication, dehydration, or a minor injury shouldn't require you to invent a solution from scratch. A little planning before you leave can turn what might have been a major problem into an inconvenience you already know how to handle.
A Three-Hour Drive Doesn't Always Stay Three Hours
Holiday traffic looks different depending on where you're traveling, but the preparation is the same. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends checking weather, road conditions, and traffic before leaving, allowing plenty of time to reach your destination, reviewing your route even if you normally rely on GPS, and letting someone know your route and estimated arrival time.
Here in Washington, our state transportation department is also warning Labor Day travelers to plan ahead for increased traffic and congestion September 4 through 7 and to give themselves extra time. It's a regional example of a problem that happens across the country during busy holiday travel periods.
A three-hour drive can become four or five. A vehicle problem can leave you sitting on the shoulder waiting for assistance. A campground or recreation area can be farther from services than expected. Someone gets a headache, a child scrapes a knee at a rest stop, you cut your hand setting up camp, someone becomes dehydrated, or medication you expected to have access to is suddenly several hours away. None of those situations is particularly dramatic, and that's the point. Preparedness isn't only about catastrophic emergencies. A lot of it is simply having enough capability to deal with ordinary problems when you're temporarily separated from the things you normally rely on.
One simple thing I've done is program the roadside assistance number provided through my insurance directly into my phone as "Roadside Assistance." I've used it more than once, both for myself and for family members. It sounds almost too simple to mention, but that's exactly why I mention it. If I'm standing alongside the road with a disabled vehicle, I don't have to remember which company handles the service, dig through insurance paperwork, search through an app, or start looking online. I search "Roadside Assistance" in my contacts and make the call.
Preparedness isn't always about carrying more stuff. Sometimes it's about having fewer problems to solve when something goes wrong.
Prepare for the People, Not Just the Destination
Before leaving, take a minute and consider who's actually going with you. Does anyone take prescription medication? Do you have enough for the trip, with some extra in case you're delayed? Are children traveling with you? What about an older family member? Is a dog coming along? Does anyone have allergies or another known need that should change what you carry?
The American Red Cross recommends considering the duration of the trip, number of people traveling, existing medical conditions, likely activities, and proximity to medical care when planning travel first aid supplies. It also recommends bringing enough medication for the planned trip plus additional medication in case the trip is unexpectedly extended.
The environment matters too. Driving from home to a hotel in a populated area is different from driving over a mountain pass to a remote campsite. A day at the beach is different from several days of overlanding. If your plans take you farther away from stores, pharmacies, cellular service, or emergency medical care, your preparation should reflect that.
You don't need to pack for every possible emergency. A more useful question is: If something reasonably predictable happens on this trip, what would I want available until we can get more help?
For the vehicle, that might mean jumper cables, a flashlight, basic tools, and appropriate roadside equipment. For the people, it means drinking water, food, medications, first aid supplies, and medical equipment you understand how to use. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's recommended emergency roadside kit follows much the same philosophy and includes a phone and charger, first aid kit, flashlight, jumper cables, nonperishable food, drinking water, medicines, maps, and emergency blankets or coats, among other items.
Know Where Your Medical Gear Is
This connects directly with something I talk about often with first aid kits: equipment isn't very useful if nobody knows where it is or what's inside it. Don't bury your medical kit underneath luggage, coolers, and camping equipment where it takes five minutes to reach.
Before you leave, open the kit and look through the contents. Check the packaging and expiration dates where applicable, and make sure the equipment you expect to be there is actually there. Then make sure someone besides you knows where the kit is. If I'm the one who gets hurt, I don't want to be the only person in the vehicle who knows that the medical equipment is buried underneath the blue duffel bag behind the driver's seat.
That conversation can take about 30 seconds: "First aid kit is right here." That's preparedness.
It's also one reason I built IFAK360 around capabilities instead of piece count. The Core 4 separates medical equipment into four functional areas: hemorrhage control, irrigation and wound preparation, wound closure and minor trauma, and medication and hydration. The goal isn't to prepare someone to practice medicine out of the back of a vehicle. It's to make useful equipment easier to identify, organize, and understand.
Just like I talked about in this week's first aid kit article, I want you to open your kit before you need it. Familiarity at home is much better than discovery during an emergency.
Before You Pull Out of the Driveway
You don't need to turn every Labor Day trip into an expedition. Check the vehicle, weather, traffic, and road conditions. Review your route. Make sure you have water and something to eat if you're delayed. Charge your phones and bring a way to keep them charged. Save important numbers before you leave, bring the medications your family actually needs, know where your first aid equipment is, and make sure someone else knows too. If you're heading somewhere more remote, increase your preparation accordingly.
For readers anywhere in the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's road-trip safety guidance is a useful resource before a trip:
https://www.nhtsa.gov/summer-driving-tips
Ready.gov provides national emergency-preparedness resources:
https://www.ready.gov/
The FEMA app can provide weather and emergency alerts and help locate emergency shelters:
https://www.ready.gov/fema-app
Most importantly, don't let the first time you consider these things be when you're already sitting alongside the highway, several hours from home. A good road-trip plan isn't about predicting everything that could possibly go wrong. It's about taking care of the things you can predict so you have fewer problems to solve when something you didn't predict happens.
Before you leave this Labor Day weekend, don't just ask whether your vehicle is ready for the trip.
Ask whether you're ready for what might happen along the way.
Explore IFAK360
IFAK360 medical and trauma modules are organized around specific capabilities so you can build a medical setup appropriate for your vehicle, campsite, home, or other environment.
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Sources & Further Reading
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Summer Driving & Road Trip Tips
Ready.gov: National Preparedness Resources
American Red Cross: Travel First Aid Kit Essentials
AAA Oregon/Idaho: Labor Day 2026 Travel and Roadside Preparedness
Washington State Department of Transportation: Labor Day Weekend 2026 Travel Guidance
About the Author
Kevin Wilson | Firefighter/Paramedic | Founder, IFAK360
Kevin Wilson is a firefighter/paramedic, Navy veteran, and Stop the Bleed instructor with more than two decades of active prehospital experience. He founded IFAK360 to build practical, modular medical and trauma systems around the way people actually prepare, travel, and respond when something goes wrong.