Well that was a rush!

[Slimboyfat]

Quoted from McJim Too-

How many people turn up at the start with a atlas.

Jim.

I'm definately not doing it in the Atlas this time. 

[McJim]

I'll bet you a Pony that you do!

Jim.

[Rutty]

Do we really need food and toilets at the first stop. The A1 has services all the way up that crews can stop off at. As food is available at the start hopefully everyone would have eaten before they started. All I want to do is get the book signed and back on the road. The main problem I could see at Wetherby was the marshals could not cope with the volume of crews that turned up together leading to a long queue. Ideally the first stop could do with more marshals than later stops when the crews have spread out. To that end all we need at the first stop is a car park big enough for all the cars. IMHO

Mark

[thescrapman]

All we need is a rubber stamp and someone sat at the top of tey slip road.

And strict instructions not to speed up the A1 and get there early.

Bang, Bang, Bang, and you then have choice of left and back on tom A1 or right to the services to do a bit of drainage work.

[thescrapman]

and barcodes on the cars to scan for the check lists 

[McJim]

Quoted from thescrapman-

All we need is a rubber stamp and someone sat at the top of tey slip road.

And strict instructions not to speed up the A1 and get there early.

Colin - you are being humourous here.  Aren't you?

There are things called Motorway Regulations where you aren't allowed to stop on the motorway except in an emergency.  50 cars queued back down the slip road onto the slow lane - in the dark - what could possibly go wrong?

I read yesterday of a crew arriving 30 minutes before the first control was due to open and they weren't even in a powerful car.  So how exactly would you slow cars down on a motorway or dual carriageway?

Quoted from thescrapman-

and barcodes on the cars to scan for the check lists 

I'm sure Club Triumph has spare cash to set up bar code readers and all the technology to handle this in an event that only runs once every two years.  And what if the phone you're using has an issue?  Back to paper and pen for the remainder of the cars and now you have two systems in operation to record the cars, then wait till the information can be extracted from someone's phone some days later when the information is of no value.

I said it before but it obviously hasn't registered.

KEEP IT AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE

There are many people on here who don't even use Facebook and you would expect them to have either a barcode reader supplied by Club Triumph or a smartphone that Club Triumph will have access to.

And how exactly will the barcode on the car system work at controls at say, John O'Groats or Land's End where the marshalls don't even see the cars?

KEEP IT AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE

Mark's suggestion is probably the best solution and have more marshals signing roadbooks, reducing the time that crews are stuck queueing at the first control.  Once you're through the passage control at Carter Bar and into Scotland, the crews have become reasonably spread out and queueing is no longer so much of an issue.

We were running late and spent 25 minutes at Wetherby last time, pushing us even later into Carter Bar, after looking for the marshalls then standing in a massive queue of well over 100 people.

Controls, other than passage controls, should have access to toilets, not everyone has the desire to disappear behind a hedge - there are quite a few non male participants nowadays, and the access to hot food is always a bonus.

The venue has to be able to accommodate the number of cars and as the popularity of the event increases, the number of venues able to cope reduces.

The control location should, ideally, be next to a petrol station or at least have one relatively close particularly on rural night sections.

The control should also be easily accessible without a mammouth  country drive to a location with no facilities and without having to have 125 plus cars with their tired crews crossing a gap in a dual carriageway to get back onto the route.

So before anyone else comes up with "I have a cunning plan", think it through.

Is it safe?

Can the event be accommodated?

Are there facilities on site?

Does it entail changing all the arrangements that would be in place at all the other controls for one location only?

Does it add complications to the running of the event?

Will it cost more to do your suggestion?

KEEP IT AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE

Rant over.

Jim.

[ferny]

Quoted from McJim Too-

 

Quoted from thescrapman-

and barcodes on the cars to scan for the check lists 

I'm sure Club Triumph has spare cash to set up bar code readers and all the technology to handle this in an event that only runs once every two years.  And what if the phone you're using has an issue?  Back to paper and pen for the remainder of the cars and now you have two systems in operation to record the cars, then wait till the information can be extracted from someone's phone some days later when the information is of no value.

I said it before but it obviously hasn't registered.

KEEP IT AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE

There are many people on here who don't even use Facebook and you would expect them to have either a barcode reader supplied by Club Triumph or a smartphone that Club Triumph will have access to.

And how exactly will the barcode on the car system work at controls at say, John O'Groats or Land's End where the marshalls don't even see the cars?

 

Rant over.

Jim.

This is potentially a good idea.

 

QR codes - free to generate

Smartphone readers - free to download

 

On a rainy evening as we go into Scotland a code reader could be ideal, with the information being sent off down the road to the next control where a marshal could sign both for both control points. 

 

Saves books getting soaked, queues and streamlines that section. It could certainly be tested on any event at the same time as the paper system being used. If it proves successful on two consecutive events then bring it into the plans. 

 

You could also have a QR code in the roadbook on the signing page. The marshal could scan this and then an online page be updated automatically. The general public and marshals further up the line have a better reading of who is still in the event then. It's simple. It's autonomous. It adds less than 2 seconds to the signing procedure. It wouldn't even be that hard to set up. Just give crews a self-adhesive sticker in their event pack which they can put in their roadbook themselves. 

[Batch]

Hi

Returning to the question about Blyth services earlier in this thread I was at Longstone tyres this afternoon and my sat nav took me past on my way home so I called in. The services are as I remember them small and cramped and there's nothing on the northbound carriageway of the A1.

What has happened is that on the opposite side of the A614 from the entrance to the services is a new area with a KFC and Starbucks and associated parking. Have a look at Google streetview https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.3893409,-1.062769,3a,30y,261.91h,88.94t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTR67zwp06-GYVnN9BSfVBw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en&authuser=0

The suggestion of having additional marshalls at Wetherby strikes me as a good one for managing the queuing, always assuming the RBRR team can find the necessary volunteers.

Dave

[Rubce]

Do the volunteers on the checking in desks have to be CT club members?

Regards

Bruce

[Velocita Rosso]

We were running late and spent 25 minutes at Wetherby last time, pushing us even later into Carter Bar, after looking for the marshalls then standing in a massive queue of well over 100 people.

 

Jim

It was well publicised where the marshals were at Wetherby,we had banners outside the sliding doors and Jane standing outside in pouring rain, shaking a bucket advising where we were inside......and the queue was because everyone arrived early . We were not allowed to open up before checking in time so we collected all the books as they arrived, put them in entry number order and had a rubber stamp to `sign` everyone in....It was quite speedy, and all crews went through in less than one hour.

Marshals take a lot of flak.....even in pouring rain on top of Carter Bar at the witching hour draped in army coveralls 

[Velocita Rosso]

Quoted from tr4tom-

Jaynes cafe at Blyth??? half a mile from the A1/services...

 

Decent car park, decent brew and im sure they would accomodate us!!

 

Tom

Already been through that exercise and even though the owners were willing to jump through hoops for us, it was declined

[Velocita Rosso]

Quoted from McJim Too-

Would be good if it was.

Plenty of atmosphere and spectators that seemed to be lacking at Wetherby.

I hear that the services have expanded on the west side of the A1(M) which could give us more room.

But it's early days yet and I'm sure they'll be quite a few changes and additions that are in the process of being organised.

Jim.

No ....they opened up a new area on the other side of the Bawtry Road eg turn left into it after exiting the A1 instead of turning right into the existing service area...in essnce its North of the existing...and it can be googled

[McJim]

Mike,

No criticism of you at Wetherby, never saw Jane and we went the wrong way in the service area concourse and had to turn round and turn to the left to find you.

You must admit that 125 plus crews all arriving in a short timeframe will lead to queues, so perhaps another two marshals signing books would not be a bad thing.

We ended up running at the back of the pack and we lost a rake of time at Wetherby, arriving at 21:30 in the car park and never made it up that night on the way north and slipped further back.

Everybody, bar us, must have gone like a bat out of hell to reach Wetherby so quickly, a lesson we'll be taking on board for next time.

The control was supposed to open at 21:13, so you must have processed a lot of crews in a short space of time, which shows your level of experience on the RBRR controls. 

There is no magic solution to this conundrum.

The first control will always be the busiest.

How the Club deals with that is the real trick.

All this barcode nonsense shows we have a lot of "experts" with little or no knowledge of the organisation of a large motoring event.

I can see you now Mike, running around in the pouring rain, hunting for entrants cars in the motorway service area, looking for the barcodes on the cars, in the dark, with everyone's barcode in a different position or not even on the car cause the crew either couldn't be bothered (those without a road atlas) or didn't have time because of last minute problems with the car (those who forgot their road atlas).

As for setting up a control on the motorway slip road, in the dark, words fail me.

I feel that any future reading of this thread by me will infuriate me with half baked ideas and nonsensical suggestions put forward.

I'm now waiting for the satellite tracking systems to be installed in all cars suggestion - it's only a matter of time before some genius comes up with that.

The RBRR works - it doesn't need radically fixed.

Leave those who are organising it, to get on with it in peace and keep silly suggestions to yourself.

Second rant of the night over.

Jim.

[RobPearce]

Quoted from McJim Too-

I'm now waiting for the satellite tracking systems to be installed in all cars suggestion

Well, nearly all the cars will already have one - it's called a smartphone. Appropriate apps available for free download.

 

 

 

<GDR>😜

[Velocita Rosso]

Quoted from McJim Too-

Mike,

No criticism of you at Wetherby, never saw Jane and we went the wrong way in the service area concourse and had to turn round and turn to the left to find you.

You must admit that 125 plus crews all arriving in a short timeframe will lead to queues, so perhaps another two marshals signing books would not be a bad thing.

We ended up running at the back of the pack and we lost a rake of time at Wetherby, arriving at 21:30 in the car park and never made it up that night on the way north and slipped further back.

Everybody, bar us, must have gone like a bat out of hell to reach Wetherby so quickly, a lesson we'll be taking on board for next time.

The control was supposed to open at 21:13, so you must have processed a lot of crews in a short space of time, which shows your level of experience on the RBRR controls. 

There is no magic solution to this conundrum.

The first control will always be the busiest.

How the Club deals with that is the real trick.

All this barcode nonsense shows we have a lot of "experts" with little or no knowledge of the organisation of a large motoring event.

I can see you now Mike, running around in the pouring rain, hunting for entrants cars in the motorway service area, looking for the barcodes on the cars, in the dark, with everyone's barcode in a different position or not even on the car cause the crew either couldn't be bothered (those without a road atlas) or didn't have time because of last minute problems with the car (those who forgot their road atlas).

As for setting up a control on the motorway slip road, in the dark, words fail me.

I feel that any future reading of this thread by me will infuriate me with half baked ideas and nonsensical suggestions put forward.

I'm now waiting for the satellite tracking systems to be installed in all cars suggestion - it's only a matter of time before some genius comes up with that.

The RBRR works - it doesn't need radically fixed.

Leave those who are organising it, to get on with it in peace and keep silly suggestions to yourself.

Second rant of the night over.

Jim.

My aged old answer Jim, `if it ain`t broke don`t fix it`

Just : Follow the road book, stop where advised ,do as instructed and get to the finish without racing and we would all have a vision of the past.

[McJim]

Quoted from Velocita Rosso-

`if it ain`t broke don`t fix it`

Probably the most sensible words on this thread.

Jim.

[richard w]

Funnily enough Wetherby was nice and quiet by the time we got there 🤔

[Velocita Rosso]

Quoted from richard w-

Funnily enough Wetherby was nice and quiet by the time we got there 🤔

Well ....you will have a slow car....or did you stop for coffee at Stevenage, Baldock, St Neots, Norman Cross,Stamford,Grantham and Newark?(so you could top up the flask at Blyth)😀😄

[thescrapman]

Peter and Rob get what I am saying, barcodes, QR codes, RFID tags are the future, they are everywhere.

Apple Pay, Oyster card etc. Everybody does it every day.

Full technological solution is to have a tracking app running on a smartphone in every car, that way no marshalls are actually needed on the road as every car is logging its location via GPS permanently. You just have to drive past a pre- determined point.

This technology is available off the shelf and is now being used for 12-car navigational rallies successfully removing the need for people to stand in lay-bys in the freezing cold signing time sheets.

It is being enhanced to cover regularity rallies as well, so also covering the stopwatch part of that as it will know the exact moment in time you pass each map point, and reportit back.

 

[thescrapman]

And to add, I have organised a motoring event, for 350 people, with one other person, so using technology was of paramount importance.

Modern asset management ( for that is all the RBRR is basically, movements of assets round the country) is technology driven.

Do fleet managers guess where their trucks are and rely on people to say they have seen them? No they have GPS trackers fitted and a screen showing the vehicle locations.

Do the AA and RAC rely on scribbling notes on the back of a fag packet to remind them where all their support vehicles are, no they have a system that tells them exactly where ecvery single one is, where the members needing assistance are, and real time scheduling.

Other advantage are that the precise speed of every vehicle is reported back in real time, so we can prove without any doubt that every single vehicle has been complying with every speed limit at all times, which will make filling in risk assessments much easier.

Technology at its best.

And we can have a bit of that. But only if we move with modern times of course.

[Velocita Rosso]

Please, Derek....where are you when we need you?

[McJim]

Thank god that the RBRR is in safe hands.

Jim.

[richard w]

Quoted from Velocita Rosso-

Quoted from richard w-

Funnily enough Wetherby was nice and quiet by the time we got there 🤔

Well ....you will have a slow car....or did you stop for coffee at Stevenage, Baldock, St Neots, Norman Cross,Stamford,Grantham and Newark?(so you could top up the flask at Blyth)😀😄

Definitely slow when the petrol stopped flowing! Dave's car was a big improvement. We did have coffee when we eventually got up to you though 🙂

[Clive]

Colin has a good point.

If things do not progress there is a danger we get left behind or worse.

With the way classic cars actually being used is regarded by many, some sort of (perceived) oversight may be advantageous. So yes, GPS tracking could be a sensible idea, and certainly help with people who disappear, marshals having an idea when to expect tail enders or whatever. Would also kill the chances of the occasional those pesky crews who hassle marshals to sign books early. 

Really chaps, best will in the world and all that, but we do need to move along with the times a bit with all sorts of things.

[Rubce]

If GPS tracking is used for logging and so there are no marshals at the stops where crews won't be stopping for fuel etc ie Carter Bar, what stops crews from departing too early? Is there not a risk it becomes too much like a race?

Bruce