A method for maintaining a local peer group (LPG) for supporting communications among vehicles. The LPG is formed from a plurality of vehicles. Each vehicle is equipped with a wireless communications device. One of the vehicles is selected as a group header node (GH). The method comprises receiving periodically a heartbeat packet from the GH, the heartbeat packet including a maximum hop count, and a heartbeat cycle, forwarding the heartbeat packet until the maximum hop count is reached after waiting for a first random relay delay, which is less than a maximum allowable adjustable value, replying to the heartbeat packet with a membership report packet, forwarding a membership report packet towards the GH, and adding a vehicle that submitted the membership report packet to a LPG membership as a member node of the LPG if the membership report packet is new or updating information for a member node.