Nation & World

<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Jack George, an independent trucker, pickets Tuesday outside a truck stop in Little Rock. Ark., to protest the high cost of diesel fuel.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Wednesday, April 2, 2008 Truckers protest prices by pulling rigs off roads Associated Press RIDGEFIELD, N.J. -- Tons of freight idled across the country Tuesday as independent truckers pulled their rigs off the road while others slowed to a crawl on major highways in a loosely organized protest of high fuel prices. Using CB radios and trucking Web sites, some truckers called for a strike Tuesday to protest the high cost of diesel fuel, hoping the action might pressure President Bush to stabilize prices by using the nation's oil reserves. Enumclaw truck driver Jesse Belmont usually burns 80 gallons of diesel a day, but he has his Kenworth dump truck and trailer parked to protest high prices. Belmont said Tuesday there's not much truckers can do, but "I won't drive today." High fuel prices have left many truckers unable to meet insurance, vehicle payments or mortgages, Belmont said. "If we try to raise our prices we get laughed at." The AAA auto club says the average price of a gallon of diesel in Washington state on Tuesday was $4.14. "The gas prices are too high," said Lamont Newberne, a trucker from Wilmington, N.C., who along with 200 drivers protested at a New Jersey Turnpike service area. "We don't make enough money to pay our bills and take care of our family." On the turnpike, southbound rigs "as far as the eye can see" staged a short lunchtime protest by moving about 20 mph near Newark, jamming traffic on one of the nation's most heavily traveled highways, authorities said. By day's end, the protests ended up scattered. Major trucking companies were not on board, and Teamsters union officials and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association denied organizing the protests. Federal law prohibits the association from calling for a strike because it is a trade association. Outside Chicago, three truck drivers were ticketed for impeding traffic on Interstate 55, driving three abreast at low speeds, the state police said. About 30 truckers drove in a convoy around metropolitan Atlanta at low speeds, police said. 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. "We can no longer haul their stuff for what they're paying," said David Santiago, 35, a trucker for the past 17 years. Charles Rotenbarger, 49, a trucker from Columbus, Ohio, said he felt helpless. "The oil company is the boss, what are we going to be able to do about it?" said Rotenbarger, who was at a truck stop at Baldwin, Fla., about 20 miles west of Jacksonville. "The whole world economy is going to be controlled by the oil companies. There's nothing we can do about it."

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