Five tips for successfully travelling in road trip convoy

It’s you and some friends in one car, your other mates in another, out for a drive seeing the sights, playing road-trip games, with the ultimate aim a beautiful destination. How tricky can that possibly be? Well, people travel at different paces and want to see different things, and this can create convoy chaos. Here’s our guide to travelling in harmonious road-trip convoy.

Agree upon an itinerary and stick to it. This way, if someone needs to stop for whatever reason—like a quick loo stop behind a tree—everyone knows where to travel towards next and can meet up.

Make sure someone has a working phone that is charged. If you’re going rural, consider checking the reception maps of your mobile service provider and have one of each phone with the best coverage in each car. A good fallback for a flat phone battery or no reception is step one: make sure that at least one person in each car knows the next stop.

It’s illegal for good reason: it’s so unsafe. Keep your travelling partners within eyeshot but not too close. Make this a rule that everyone knows before embarking on your trip.

It might seem like overkill but it’s wise to have a trip leader. This is easier said than done—the vagaries of human personality clashes aren’t something that can be predicted. Some people are inherent leaders, others go with the flow. Let the alpha person run wild and the convoy will flow smoothly.

Sure, you may be zippier than your friend but think about turning down your tempo for the greater good. Don’t worry about ‘making good time’, just enjoy the drive and look-out for your pals.

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