The Convoy 4 Kids

benett said :

astrojax said :

i still resent my summer afternoon tranquility being shattered for over an hour – isn’t it unlawful to sound your vehicle’s [air!] horn in the absence of some corollary emergency?

This is the sort of comment that adds weight to the affirmative in the “Canberran’s are boring pointy-shoe wearing public-service tax-payer funded salary grabbing no-life wankers” debate.

I was driving down Northbourne Ave at the same time as the fire engines who had their sirens and lights on. I was really confused about what I should do — I pulled over to the left and slowed down in case it was an emergency but the appliances themselves were in the left lane and driving at or below the speed limit. Who has right of way in such situations? Am I allowed to overtake them?

NeedHelp said :

Just a suggestion, but perhaps the Eden Monaro Cancer Support group could update their website – particularly the page that refers to this convoy. It’s four years out of date. All I ask for is some feedback on the success of the event, and the actual ways that it is supposed to have raised money for this charity group. I am none the wiser reading their website. It tells me that honk horns for charity, and how wonderful the event was back in 2006. People have a right to ask questions. There is nothing more to it than that – no need to get narky roger_duck.

I tend to agree on the updating of the webpage NeedHelp, and being entitled to an opinion but as far as my narkiness goes (HA! If there is such a word), it’s mainly aimed at the narrow-minded inhabitants of this area that seem to think anything that is more left field of a latte sipping cafe experience from the back of a van impacts their own lives so humongously that they must do their utmost to complain to the world about how hard done by they are. Repetitive as it is, but I am flabbergasted that people would even consider their Saturday afternoon spoilt by a ton of trucks and smaller vehicles proudly flying the flag for a worthy cause.

For those not in the know, donations are gained from any business, group, individual/s that participate in the convoy or by sponsoring a truck, for example a local business “bought” the lead truck in this year’s event for fantastic $10,000. There are also people walking the convoy line prior to departure with collection buckets and also at the final event at the Queanbeyan Showground.

astrojax said :

maybe, mordd, but roger duck neglects to mention that there is much to be said for shifting a lot of freight by rail and getting trucks off the roads – this government needs to do a lot of thinking (and acting!) on this critical infrastructure need. so i will single out truck drivers – they shouldn’t be needed [so much]… and i don’t decry them, and associated businesses, supportig charities, but acting to inconvenience swathes of residents with noise pollution perhaps isn’t the way to go about it.

and who listens to commercial radio?

Oh seriously, you are trying to turn this into a road vs rail argument? What the hell does that really have to do with this? Its a fundraising exercise, if you want to rant about road vs rail transport go start a new post and present your facts.

For the record, I watched them go past in Queanbeyan for about half an hour, I can report that although about 50% of the vehicles were trucks, there were also RFA vehicles, local business in cars, including 5 westpac bank cars I saw go past as an example, in fact all round it was a pretty decent reprsentation of local transport workers, government workers, blue and white collar local businesses, etc..

Also I don’t listen to commercial radio either, thats why I had to call the local cop-shop here to find out what it was all about. I’m surprised after 4 years in Queanbeyan I hadn’t heard of it before now, but as the officer I spoke to pointed out there have been banners above the roads advertising in Queanbeyan (along Monaro street heading out towards bungednore for example) and apperently it was also mentioned in newspapers, on radio, and local tv news for the past number of weeks now, I just don’t pay much attention to local news sources (apart from RA of course lol).

Sure they should probably update their website, but thats hardly a reason to be attacking the organisers for trying to do the right thing. I agree, you should all hand your heads in shame.

maybe, mordd, but roger duck neglects to mention that there is much to be said for shifting a lot of freight by rail and getting trucks off the roads – this government needs to do a lot of thinking (and acting!) on this critical infrastructure need. so i will single out truck drivers – they shouldn’t be needed [so much]… and i don’t decry them, and associated businesses, supportig charities, but acting to inconvenience swathes of residents with noise pollution perhaps isn’t the way to go about it.

and who listens to commercial radio?

Well said Roger_Duck +1

Just a suggestion, but perhaps the Eden Monaro Cancer Support group could update their website – particularly the page that refers to this convoy. It’s four years out of date. All I ask for is some feedback on the success of the event, and the actual ways that it is supposed to have raised money for this charity group. I am none the wiser reading their website. It tells me that honk horns for charity, and how wonderful the event was back in 2006. People have a right to ask questions. There is nothing more to it than that – no need to get narky roger_duck.

astrojax said :

hook line and… 😉

that said, like needhelp points out, some warning prior to the event might have been courteous – oh wait, it’s truckies, innit…

I believe it was advertised on 104.7 and 106.3 for a few weeks. But please don’t single out truck drivers. If it wasn’t for their efforts, you would be missing out on quite a lot of modern conveniences.

Once again, I utter the words “Get over it people!” If you can’t appreciate a whole menagerie of local truck drivers and various other businesses getting together to raise money either out of their own pockets or from other businesses “purchasing” sponsorship from the lead truck, for example, for such a worthy cause as the Eden-Monaro Cancer support group, then maybe your place in this supposedly multiculturally diverse community is waning upon the ridiculous expectations of a society that snubs people having fun for a cause.

Hang your own heads in shame and pray that you or one of your relatives may not need the support of such a worthy and fun community involved cause.

astrojax said :

i still resent my summer afternoon tranquility being shattered for over an hour – isn’t it unlawful to sound your vehicle’s [air!] horn in the absence of some corollary emergency?

This is the sort of comment that adds weight to the affirmative in the “Canberran’s are boring pointy-shoe wearing public-service tax-payer funded salary grabbing no-life wankers” debate.

This from the Eden Monaro Cancer Support Group website:

http://www.actemcsg.org.au/events/convoy_cancer_families.html

Four years out of date.

Can someone please explain how honking trucks raises money? Do people throw money into their trucks? Is it all about awareness? How exactly does it work? How much has been raised over the years? Anyone know? The website tells me very little, and besides, the page dedicated to the convoy is very out of date.

I have video footage of them proceeding through Queanbeyan, its a bit shaky but ill send it in if anyone is interested.

And yes I thought the world was ending as well hearing all the horns, sirens etc.. but when you see the police and SES marshalling the traffic, and the sirens all coming from fire trucks or rfa vehicles, its not hard to work out they obviously “got a permit” for it.