National Safety Month: Master Lock Tips and Products for Your Summer Travel

June is National Safety Month, which kicks off the season for summer travel. While we all love vacations, it’s also important to focus on the safety of our family, vehicle, valuables and home when we’re away. Fortunately, Master Lock has a multitude of ideas and products to help ensure a safe summer.
Prepare for the Unexpected – One summer, we went to the Georgia mountains for vacation, and I tripped over a parking curb on our very first night and cracked a bone in my arm. Unfortunately, accidents happen, and you don’t want to end up at the hospital or urgent care without your insurance or other medical information. Thanks to the free and secure Master Lock Vault, you can store digital copies of your family’s important medical and identification information for easy access from your smartphone on the go. In addition to providing online storage for critical, sensitive documents, the app offers password and lock combination storage at a 256-bit SSL encrypted connection -- the highest grade browser security available -- providing peace of mind against cyber security threats.
Keep Vehicles Protected – One of our vehicles is a pick-up truck with a trailer hitch, and my husband loves the extra layer of security we get with the Master Lock 1469DAT Heavy Duty Receiver Lock, which resists picking and prying to avoid possible theft. The two photos above show the actual lock on our truck, which took just seconds for my husband to install!
On our travels, we often see people bringing along their bikes, and hopefully they’ve included a Master Lock 8195D Bike Lock for each bike to secure it between excursions. It would really put a damper on their vacation plans if their bikes were stolen!
Designate a Family Meeting Spot – No matter how carefully you watch your children at theme parks or other crowded attractions, it just takes a second to lose sight of a child. Living in Florida, we’ve been to several theme parks, and we always come up with a designated meeting spot in case anyone gets lost. We also wear brightly colored look-alike shirts so it’s easier to spot each other in a crowd and describe our appearance to a security official, if necessary.
Secure House Keys for Pet or Home Sitters – When we’re away, we often hire someone to care for our cats while we’re gone, and I’m always paranoid that they’ll lose our house key. But next time we go away, I’m going to take a tip from our realtor friends and use a lock box, such as the Master Lock 5422D Portable Key Safe or a Master Lock 5422LZ Push Button Portable Lock Box; Personalized Laser Engraved, which can be customized with contact information. That way, our pet sitter will always have our key conveniently at hand and won’t forget to bring it over or lose it at home.
Protect Valuables and Important Documents – Sadly, we know a family whose house burned down when they were on vacation, and they lost many valuable documents and keepsakes. Since then, we’ve kept our most important documents and other valuables in a locked, fire-protected box like the SentrySafe 1200 Privacy Lock Chest. All of our family’s birth certificates, passports, social security cards and other items, which are very difficult to replace, are kept in the lock box.
When your family is on vacation, you want to be free to enjoy your valuable time together, and one of the ways to do that is to take safety precautions before you set off on your trip. I hope you’ll visit the Master Lock website at www.masterlock.com for more safety tips and products. You can also visit the Master Lock Facebook page at www.facebook.com/masterlock or join them on Twitter @MasterLockUS.

Disclosure: As a member of the Master Lock Live Secure Safety Squad, I receive complimentary products and compensation to facilitate my reviews. However, all opinions are 100% my own.