‘People’s Convoy’ begins rolling to Washington with message against COVID restrictions
‘We’re the power in this country, not them, the government; they work for us,’ trucker says
Drawing on the intense media attention gained by defiant Canadian truck drivers and opponents of government mandates regarding COVID-19, some U.S. truckers have launched their own cross-country effort, the “People’s Convoy,” which rolled out on Wednesday from Adelanto, California, bound for Washington.
The plan is to arrive in the D.C. Beltway area on March 5, five days after President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address.
Although truckers who gathered at Adelanto Stadium, home of a minor league soccer club, had a range of reasons for participating in the convoy, all sounded a common the
me — they wanted to be heard.
Hundreds of people showed up for the public send-off that started at 10 a.m. PST on Wednesday, though only around 30 tractor-trailers were set to roll from Adelanto as part of the convoy, a source on the scene told FreightWaves. Most of those trucks belonged to convoy organizers.
One organizer told FreightWaves he expects around 1,000 tractor-trailers, along with participants in personal vehicles, including motorcycles, RVs and pickup trucks, to join the convoy at various points along the 10-day “peaceful route” to the D.C. area.
“It’s called the People’s Convoy because this is for every red-blooded person with a heartbeat that is concerned about our freedoms,” Marcus Summers, a 34-year trucking veteran from Millersburg, Ohio, told FreightWaves. That’s the purpose of this convoy is our freedoms are being stripped away from us — the freedom to choose and not have the vaccine forced upon us or to have to wear masks.”
While a map has been distributed and nightly stops have been established, Summers said routes could change at any time.
Convoy’s precise destination in dispute
Although the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s efforts to mandate businesses with over 100 employees require vaccinations and all truckers are exempt when driving domestically, Summers, one of the organizers of the U.S. convoy, said they are supporting doctors, nurses and law enforcement personnel who were forced to “get the jab or were fired.”
The convoy’s press release stated that it would “abide by agreements with local authorities and terminate in the vicinity of the DC area” and would not go into Washington proper, but not everyone was on board regarding the final destination.
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Source: Freight Waves
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