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 websites, some truckers called for a strike Tuesday to protest the high cost of diesel, hoping the action might pressure President Bush to stabilize prices by using the nation’s oil reserves.
“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 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.
Meanwhile in Washington, top executives of the five biggest U.S. oil companies said they know high prices are hurting consumers but deflected any blame and argued their profits, $123 billion last year, were in line with other industries.
Clayton Boyce, spokesman for the American Trucking Association, said diesel prices are the worst he has seen but said his organization does not support or condone the strike.
His group is pushing for a number of measures to keep the prices down or to otherwise help truckers, including allowing exploration of oil-rich areas of the U.S. that are now off-limits and setting a 65-mph national speed limit.
Truck stop reveals drivers’ dedication
Independent trucker Robert Perkins of San Bernardino, Calif., stopped trucking Tuesday.
Perkins, pictured above, doesn’t plan to start again until Friday and is willing to stay shut down longer if others do.
Perkins was among a few drivers interviewed at a truck stop near Interstate 70 and Ward Road who were participating in the move to call attention to high fuel prices. Most drivers said they worked for companies that absorbed the cost of fuel.
“The aim is to let them know that we’re tired of it, tired of being taken advantage of,” Perkins said. “I don’t know if it’ll make a difference or not, but it’s the only thing I know that we can do, and I’ll do whatever I can.”
Don Cook, an independent trucker from east Texas, also was protesting fuel costs.
“It’s killing me,” Cook said. “It’s killing everybody.”
Trooper Gilbert Mares, a spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol, said there were no reports of incidents on state highways because of the strike. Kelly Yamanouchi, The Denver Post; photo by Joe Amon, The Denver Post
