This section will inform you about air brakes. If you want to drive a truck or bus with air brakes or pull a trailer with air brakes, you need to study this section.

Air brakes use compressed air to make the brakes work. Air brakes are a good and safe way of stopping large and heavy vehicles but the brakes must be well maintained and used properly. Air brakes are really three different braking systems in one. There is a service brake, a parking brake and an emergency brake.

The service brake system applies and releases the brakes when you use the brake pedal during normal driving. The parking brake system applies and releases the parking brakes when you use the parking brake control. The emergency brake system uses parts of the service and parking brake systems to stop the vehicle in the event of a break system failure.