Need a break from off-the-charts diesel? The annual TenFour D.C. appreciation and advocacy event kicks off beginning September 30 next week at a staging area in Maryland before the wee-hours convoy into the nation's capital.
Participating truckers' bobtails then stage Oct. 1-3 on the National Mall, and as shown with this year's promo video highlighting the public-outreach mission of the event, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Derek Barrs will keynote this year's event.
According to longtime TenFour D.C. organizer Fred Bowerman, Barrs' talk is scheduled for Friday at 1:30 p.m. local time, a key opportunity for participating truckers to deliver on the event's mission of a two-way street in advocacy, addressing driver frustrations with dialogue where it counts.
"We really hope to put a spotlight on Dalilah's Law" among other things, Bowerman said, a reference to legislation that would essentially codify Department of Transportation rulemaking efforts to almost entirely ban CDLs for non-citizens, aside from a few narrow categories of visa holders. That rulemaking's currently making its way through legal challenges, with the latest reporting detailing oral arguments in the D.C. federal appeals court September 15.
A final ruling from the three-judge panel could come any day now.
[Related: FMCSA's non-domiciled CDL ban takes a beating in court]
The TenFour organizer made note of widespread social-media calls for an Oct. 1 strike or shutdown over high fuel prices -- he stressed those calls had nothing to do with the TenFour D.C. event.
"I'm telling everybody, 'we're not endorsing any shutdown,'" he said. "TenFour is fundamentally a neutral platform. We support drivers voicing their frustrations, and I want to encourage people to use this as a value-added exchange of information" between truckers and regulators, Congresspeople and the general public.
Past reports from the TenFour D.C. event have highlighted the exchange in a variety of ways, it's sure, and given the National Mall location, the general public engages in the manner of nearly any other truck show, yet in a spectacular public setting.
[Related: 50K truckers striking Oct. 1? Here's what drivers are saying]
This year, with FMCSA chief Barrs' appearance, Bowerman said, "it's nice to see" regulators engaged more fully than in years past. TenFour was last held in 2024, on hiatus in 2025 given the organization's financial situation.
Yet Bowerman's already looking ahead to 2027 in some ways, building better foundations for the future.
"We want it to be a workshop that everybody can get something from," he said. "It's about bringing the whole driver group together. We don't want to alienate anyone. We want this to be a relaxed atmosphere where the drivers really feel like they own it."
Participating truckers need to register for the event in advance via this link to the TenFour website. There is no fee to register, but participants can donate to the event there as well.
Staging this year has been moved from the Fredericksburg, Virginia, fairgrounds to a location in Maryland, where Oct. 3 roll-out convoy participants can return for final events through Sunday, 10-4: The Upperco Motorsports Grounds/Upperco VFC center in Upperco, Maryland.
One note on scheduled entertainment: Trucker Taylor Barker led the set-up, but he's not the prime performer contrary to what's in the video (a snafu Bowerman acknowledged). Trucker-songwriter and longtime Overdrive contributor Long Haul Paul Marhoefer will be performing Friday, Oct. 2 with shows by Neal McMurray, of Tennessee, both Thursday and Friday.
[Related: In-cab showers for the masses? Be Camper Sleeper's drive to deliver]
The video below excerpts interviews and scenes from the roll-in, and roll-out, during the 2020 edition of the TenFour D.C. event:
