Convoy Guidelines (for Marshall)

Convoy Driving Guidelines

Driving in a convoy is pretty different from having a fun drive where a few might show some driving skills with crazy (dangerous) stunts or speed to impress everybody. Whenever a group of cars of the same make cruising together on the road, more often than not it will grab the attention of the public, not forgetting the authority too. Therefore, safe & well-disciplined driving would not only make us look good but also to train our ‘anger management’ while behind the wheel, where most Malaysian drivers tend to turn into dr. Jekyll once in the driver’s seat.

Communication
Radio communication during convoy is very important in order to ensure safe driving for all participants. It is also use for relaying emergency msg or ad-hoc instructions by convoy marshals.

During a drive, conversations are mainly between zero, control, marshals & group leaders. Anyway, during a long highway driving, members are allowed to have short conversations from time to time, to kill the boredom BUT definitely not during in-town driving as there are a lot of important info needs to be relayed by the marshals regarding road/traffic condition during the drive

Ethics in using frequency
The most important thing is NO SWEARING & VULGAR WORDS IN ANY LANGUAGE whatsoever..!
Only use BM or English or language that EVERYBODY can understand, speak with normal voice – no need shouting, if others can't hear u they can always turn up the volume. It is only proper to give 2 -3 second pause in-between conversation in case someone needs to join in..

The proper way to called station id followed by calling station id..

“16… 16… 14 calling, over..”

to join in conversation, intro id during the pause

“break.. 10 standby”

‘break’ should only be mention once as it’s a standard world convention where a single ‘break’ denotes normal break-in, twice consecutively is urgent & 3 times is a life & death situation.

Always let the breaking-in station chance to talk first in-case they have a very important announcement to make. Any emergency report should be conveyed only to control, which will then relay it to the appropriate personnel.


Strobe lights & Sirens
These tools are to use only when necessary (as hazard light), do not turn it on all the time as we have no authority in using that. The use of such tools may panic other road users and cause accident.

Blocking Traffic - Hot Car
For those who being hot cars have to be extra careful when comes into blocking traffic. In fact I am thinking of try not to block the traffic as its rather dangerous for other road users than solely for our own convenience. Do block traffic only when there are too many of us without walkies or mode of communication...else we will try to regroup by using our communication tools.

Speed
Learning from the mistake and gathered the ideas from most of the comms that our max speed should stay below 120kmh... only hot car can push to higher speed...and we have said it many times...member are to keep one car space at all time...and too close or too far will be advise accordingly...we have to identify who are the slow and fast driver...as to do the grouping accordingly
Zero will be abt a minute or so ahead of convoy as a look-out for traffic condition, & will report to control, which at the same time set the pace of the convoy. Zero would slow down the speed after toll in order for the rest of the group to catch up in time. Everybody will regain convoy speed when last car reports that everyone had cleared the toll. The same applies when part of the group got stuck in red light.
When approaching a traffic light or toll, convoy can take separate lane, if available but try to remain in the same group on the same lane, group leaders will lead the group back into convoy position.

Punctuality
Due to the fact that we are moving in a convoy manner and time has to be followed as planned and no waiting is allow....late comers will try their best to reach to the destination. The most we can wait for the late-comers is 5mins top, or else WE ALL gonna be late & this surely doesn't look good on club image, esp if we r attending an invitation.. All related info had been posted earlier on & members should do their part in this also – read it..! got stuck stuck in the jam..? well, too bad then...
we r operating on the interest of many, not just one member, no matter if s/he a member of the royal family & pay fee 100times more than others... this is abt principle & club reputation that every member should uphold..

addentum:

this is very important...
in the event of car breakdown or accident, NOBODY is to stop except for last car &/or sweeper/hot-car.. this is for safety, don't be the typical malaysian & crowded the location, this will only lead to traffic congestion & possibly more accident...
the rest of the convoy should carry on. last car will attend & update control on the situation till finish & rejoin the convoy, if possible.