An Oct. 4-6 event is planned for Washington, D.C., to highlight trucking’s contribution to the economy and to express concerns over some of trucking’s hot-button issues. Those include opposition to the electronic logging device mandate, support for reform aimed at added flexibility in the hours of service and an emphasis on the importance of robust new-driver training, among other issues.
The principal purpose, though, is expressing unity among participating truckers at the “That’s a Big 10-4 on D.C.” event. It will begin with a truck convoy that will start at the fairgrounds in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the third of October. The day’s activity will conclude that night on the National Mall in Washington.
“A little history to be made,” says Pennsylvania-based owner-operator Mike Landis, among organizers of the event, with what will amount to a truck show on the National Mall over the next two days, Oct. 4-5.
“We are attempting to break the world record in a convoy, while uniting the trucker community,” says another of the event’s organizers, Bonnie Kelly of AB Kelly Trucking in Clearville, Pennsylvania.
Bonnie Kelly hauls LTL reefer to the West Coast, produce back, in a team with her husband, Allen, who noted that a record-breaking convoy could be the very thing to draw media attention to the truckers’ issues, and the truck-show atmosphere expected on the mall could also be effective in “getting the message out to the public,” he said.
Permits have been obtained to park on the mall from Oct. 4 until 9 a.m. Oct. 6, a Saturday, when attendees then will be escorted out of Washington. “We will be convoying back to the fairgrounds in Fredericksburg, where there will be an Appreciation Day for those who attended and the general public,” Bonnie Kelly says.
Organizers recommend securing hotels in the D.C. area, as idling will be prohibited on the mall and in the surrounding areas.
