Hundreds of motorcoaches representing 3,000 motorcoach companies across the U.S. and their 100,000 employees will be rolling into the nation’s capital on May 13 to support awareness of the industry’s role as a critical component of the country’s infrastructure.

Motorcoaches do everything from evacuating victims of hurricanes and wildfires to transporting thousands America’s military troops all around the nation. Under the banner, “Motorcoach Rolling Awareness Campaign,” these vehicles will circle Washington, D.C. as a moving rally, bearing messages that explain the importance of the industry and ask Congress and the White House to extend economic relief to motorcoach companies. The event is jointly organized by the American Bus Association and the United Motorcoach Association.

“Our ask is simple,” Jeff Polzien of Red Carpet Charters said. “The U.S motorcoach industry is requesting Congress put motorcoaches back on the road by making available $10 billion in grants for operational and payroll assistance and $5 billion in long-term zero percent interest rate loans to the industry, ensuring these monies are available immediately and easily accessible. Our businesses need a lifeline so we can be there when the country needs us next.”

“The current economic remedies available to small businesses don’t address sectors like ours that will take much longer to recover from the current crisis. Airlines, Amtrak, and transits have received more than $75 billion prop up these industries,” said ABA President/CEO Peter Pantuso. “Of the 3,000 bus and motorcoach companies in the United States, 90 percent are small, family-owned business who have had to close their businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. By having to shut their doors while no one is traveling, nearly 100,000 employees, which include drivers, cleaners, maintenance and repair, administrative and safety personnel, are now without incomes.”

These vehicles will share messages to underscore the many ways motorcoaches help move America:

• Military transports across the nation for troops in all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.

• Evacuations of Americans from wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods.

• Connecting people to jobs with commuters and employee shuttles.

• Connecting rural America to urban centers and to other modes of transportation.

• Providing school transportation as well as sports and educational trips.

• Reducing congestion by taking 36 cars off the road for each coach.

Providing vital services to the entire transportation network when other modes are inoperable, the event will stage at DC’s Audi Field, south of the U.S. Capitol, and motorcoaches will begin rolling at 11 a.m.