In Washington, D.C., nothing moves easily — especially not a beautiful, oversized, 53-foot Christmas tree bound earlier this month for the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). With security perimeters tight in the Nation’s Capital, streets highly restrictive, and traffic leading into the city unforgiving, this was no ordinary holiday delivery. It was a test of skill, confidence, and composure under pressure.
Behind the wheel was a professional truck driver who embodied all three — someone capable of commanding a full-sized commercial truck through the Nation’s Capital, making real-time decisions, and solving problems as they surfaced. Because delivering a symbol of the season to one of the most secure addresses in the country takes far more than horsepower — it takes leadership on wheels.
Who was this highly qualified professional truck driver? Her name is known to many in the Women In Trucking (WIT) community: Ingrid Brown, who has 46 years of experience behind the wheel and is a founding member of WIT since 2007. Brown is a Professional Driver and Refrigerated Operations Manager for Blackjack Express LLC, a trucking company that specializes in managing heavy haul, oversized loads, industrial and construction equipment, and refrigerated freight. She has been a corporate driver for Arkansas-based Blackjack Express since 2023 and has expressed deep appreciation for the company’s support of her in delivering this oversized Christmas tree to the nation’s most important agency focused on trucking safety.
Brown says she helped FMCSA to source and secure the tree from long-time family friends at Circle C Farms in Boone, NC, a picturesque community near where she grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She coordinated the tree pick-up for Saturday, Dec. 6, so the tree would be freshly cut that morning — all while proactively factoring in poor winter weather and road conditions in the area. She then drove to the small town of Staunton, VA, where the following morning she picked up WIT’s President and CEO Jennifer Hedrick for a ride-along and to serve as her “co-pilot.” Bound for Washington, D.C., they continued their journey for an additional 160 miles by following the route of I-81 North to I-66 East, then I-395 North into the city.
“It was an honor to be a part of securing and delivering the Christmas tree to our friends at the DOT and FMCSA,” says Brown. “It was special for me to come from home and to represent where I come from. But there was so much more to it than simply picking up and delivering the tree. Figuring out the best route to ensure we would clear bridges, overpasses and any other restrictions was critical — and poor weather and road conditions also had become factors to consider.”
“As you would assume, delivering freight to the Nation’s Capitol is always a challenge because of high security and scrutiny of trucks entering the city,” continues Brown. “In fact, I made multiple calls to get the motor carrier security unit in DC to clear us to cross the bridge over the Potomac River into Washington.”
“Ingrid had mapped out the trip in a very detailed way that many of us do not think about, as we simply type in the address in our phones and press on as non-CDL drivers,” observes Hedrick. She notes that the nuances of city driving and navigation are incredible, from thinking about trees that overhang on roads, to lanes that are blocked by illegally parked cars or those making short deliveries. “There were challenges, and Ingrid managed it all with such ease.”
The following morning Brown welcomed FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs into her cab to complete the delivery of the Christmas tree to the DOT and FMCSA headquarters. She also spent some time during this “mini ride-along” to discuss with Administrator Barrs the importance of safety on the road and in the cab, the many barriers to truck safety, and over-the-road safety while driving amongst passenger vehicle traffic.
“There are so many factors that impact safety on the roads — including driver distractions and how the main population doesn’t understand or appreciate commercial trucks on the road,” says Brown. “Part of the solution is more education with the public on how they should operate cars around trucks. We need outreach to go further and to push harder on awareness that this large, heavy truck can’t stop on a dime. Safety on the road requires everyone to be more aware of their own driving behaviors on the road to keep us all safe.”
After the tree was delivered, Hedrick, Brown, and WIT’s government affairs consultant Tom Jensen then spent some time meeting with Administrator Barrs to discuss priorities in trucking safety and how WIT and the leaders at FMCSA can collaborate together to better serve drivers and the broader trucking industry. Later that week, Hedrick and Brown attended a special tree lighting ceremony, where the tree was unveiled to the DOT staff and broader public.
A legacy member of the WIT Image Team for nearly nine years and current WIT Board member, Ingrid Brown is no stranger to collaborating with top policy-makers in the U.S. trucking industry.
Years ago, she was a representative and truck driver advocate with Trucker Nation, an industry group dedicated to educating, motivating, and empowering professional truck drivers to use their voices and engage constructively on issues affecting the trucking industry. This advocacy group was co-founded by well-known country music star and professional truck driver Tony Justice.
In 2015, Brown began collaborating closely with FMCSA on safety issues and potential regulatory solutions through personal relationship-building, individual conversations, and advocacy listening sessions. Her insights in support of Trucker Nation provided meaningful feedback from a driver perspective on critical matters such as hours-of-service (HOS) proposals and electronic logging devices (ELDs) ultimately provided useful perspectives to FMCSA to create informed policy around safety.
Along with many other voices in the driver community, Brown’s advocacy on important issues has helped to support FMCSA’s Our Roads, Our Safety® campaign. The agency first introduced this influential campaign in August 2016 as a national safety initiative to raise awareness about sharing the road safely with large trucks. In 2019, Brown was the agency’s face and voice for driver safety through a campaign of national billboards, print and public service announcements (PSAs). Today it’s a series of campaigns that help raise awareness about sharing the road safely and reducing crashes involving large trucks on U.S. roadways through safe driving behaviors.
In 2021, she participated in FMCSA’s Safety Summit, an event that brought together industry, government, and subject matter experts to improve commercial motor vehicle safety through collaboration, new technologies, and best practices.
Brown has used her strong voice, expertise behind the wheel, and skills in collaboration to build relationships with influential government policy stakeholders as Jim Mullen (former Acting Administrator and Chief Counsel of FMCSA), Raymond Martinez (former Senior Advisor at the U.S. DOT and former FMCSA Administrator), and Joe DeLorenzo, former FMCSA Acting Associate Administrator.
“For several years, I advocated for professional truck drivers on the Hill by sitting down with trucking policy-makers and their staffs to discuss what to do, to discuss what could work and not work to keep drivers safe and productive,” says Brown. “It has been a great way for me to turn my voice and years of experience into helpful insights that benefit the entire trucking industry.”
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