They should be doing this in regard to Mexican trucking here too!

Truckers Protest High Fuel Prices, Clog NJ Turnpike

POSTED: 12:38 pm EDT April 1, 2008
UPDATED: 4:13 pm EDT April 1, 2008


RIDGEFIELD, N.J. -- Truckers angry about the high price of fuel staged a rolling protest on Tuesday, using their big rigs to slow traffic to a crawl on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The protest was part of a loosely organized nationwide effort by independent truckers to draw attention to the high prices they face.

On the Turnpike, southbound rigs "as far as the eye can see" slowed to about 20 mph near Newark around lunchtime -- jamming traffic on one of the nation's most heavily traveled highways.

State Police said several drivers were issued tickets as troopers broke up the slowdowns.

At a Turnpike rest area in North Jersey, about 200 truck drivers carried signs and protested high fuel prices.

"The gas prices are too high," said one of them, Lamont Newberne, a 34-year-old trucker from Wilmington, N.C. "We don't make enough money to pay our bills and take care of our family."

Newberne said a typical run carrying produce from Lakeland, Fla., to the Hunt's Point Market in The Bronx, N.Y., had cost $600 to $700 a year ago. It now runs him $1,000.

Some truckers, on CB radios and trucking Web sites, 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.

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.

Echoing Newberne, many truckers said they can't support their family on what they make.

"We can no longer haul their stuff for what they're paying," said David Santiago, 35, a trucker for the past 17 years. "If it wasn't for my wife, we would have been bankrupt already," Santiago said.

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."

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 truck stop.

Teamsters union officials said they had nothing to do with any kind of protests. An independent truck drivers group, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said it also was not organizing anything. Federal law prohibits the association from calling for a strike because it is a trade association.

In Washington, meanwhile, top executives of the five biggest U.S. oil companies said Tuesday they know high fuel prices are hurting consumers but deflected any blame and argued their profits -- $123 billion last year -- were in line with other industries.

Dan Little, a cattle hauler in Carrolton, Mo., said he stopped working Tuesday and would likely remain idle the rest of the week in support of fellow truckers striking in Georgia. He said he's gotten around 50 phone calls and 100 e-mails from fellow Missouri truckers also stopping Tuesday. "We are trying desperately to send a message to Washington to open your eyes to the disaster going on in this industry," said Little, who wants Congress to suspend fuel taxes on diesel fuel for Class A trucks.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/15762598/detail.html