TRENTON, N.J. -- Independent truckers around the country pulled their rigs off the road and others slowed to a crawl on major highways in a loosely organized protest of high fuel prices, reported the Associated Press.
Some truckers, on CB radios and trucking websites, had called for a strike Tuesday to protest the high cost of diesel fuel, saying the action might pressure President Bush to stabilize prices by using the nation's oil reserves. But the protests were scattered because major trucking companies were not on board and there did not appear to be any central coordination.
On [image-nocss] New Jersey's Turnpike, southbound rigs "as far as the eye can see" were moving at about 20 mph near Newark, said Turnpike Authority spokesperson Joe Orlando. Other truckers had gathered at a service area near Newark chanting and protesting.
Outside Chicago, three truck drivers were ticketed for impeding traffic on Interstate 55, driving three abreast at low speeds, said Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Luis Gutierrez.
Near Florida's Port of Tampa, more than 50 tractor-trailer rigs sat idle as their drivers demanded that contractors pay them more to cover their fuel and other costs.
Jimmy Lowry, 51, of St. Petersburg, Fla., and others said it costs about $1 a mile to drive one of the big rigs, although some companies are offering as little as 87 cents a mile. Diesel cost $4.03 a gallon at the Jacksonville-area truckstop, the report said.
Teamsters union officials said they had nothing to do with any kind of protests. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) said it also was not organizing anything. Federal law prohibits the association from calling for a strike because it is a trade association.
Rather than joining the protests, some truckers were forced to sit idle because of shippers' fears of a possible strike.
In western Michigan, independent trucker William Gentry had been scheduled to pick up a load and take it to Boston, but his dispatcher told him there was a change of plans. "She told me that her shipper was shutting down," fearing that someone would sabotage deliveries if their drivers worked during the protest, Gentry said at the Tulip City Truck Stop outside Holland, Mich.
He and Bob Sizemore, 55, a 30-year veteran trucker, decided to return to their homes in Ohio, 280-mile trips that would cost each one about $200 of their own money for fuel alone. "We can't ride around here looking for freight," said Gentry, 47, a driver for 23 years.
If something isn't done about fuel prices, the cost of consumer goods will shoot up, Gentry said. "People aren't seeing that the more we pay, the more they're going to pay," he said.
On Monday, scores of truckers took to the highways and streets around the Harrisburg, Pa., capitol building and blasted their horns to protest rising fuel prices. As the protest convoy circled the block, about 100 people gathered on the Capitol steps to urge state lawmakers and Governor Ed Rendell to eliminate Pennsylvania's highest-in-the-nation diesel fuel tax of 38.1 cents per gallon.
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