Truckers slow down to fight surge

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 citizens band 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.

"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.

Kevin Honea, a spokesman for the Nevada Highway Patrol, said troopers have yet to see any noticeable protest activity among truck drivers in the Silver State.

Truck traffic volume hasn't changed, and truckers haven't slowed down substantially, Honea said.

Paul Enos, chief executive officer of the Nevada Motor Transport Association, said he hasn't heard any of his trade group's 530 member companies discuss traffic slowdowns or other protests.

Enos said he's heard rumors of trucking strikes in other parts of the country, but members of the Nevada Motor Transport Association have thus far refused to strike because they don't want to hurt relations with customers. Nor would any "professional" truck drivers drop speeds to 20 mph because putting on the brakes could imperil other drivers, Enos said.

"Most, if not all, truck drivers are concerned about creating safe conditions on the highway," Enos said. "I don't know anyone who would put their life or anyone else's life at risk like that."

Instead of protesting on the streets, truckers are looking for internal efficiencies, Enos said.

Every 1-cent jump in diesel prices adds $391 million in fuel costs to the trucking industry's budget, he said. It costs 147 percent, or $709, more to fill up a tractor-trailer today than half a decade ago.

To save fuel, truckers have dropped speeds from 65 mph to 62 mph, and they're avoiding the stop-and-start patterns of rush-hour traffic. They're also curtailing discretionary idling at truck stops, and they're putting off new hires and purchases of fresh equipment.

Still, pricier fuel for truckers is wending its way toward consumers' wallets.

"High diesel prices are affecting the trucking industry, but those prices will also have a downstream impact that will affect the cost of food you buy and the cost of clothes you wear," Enos said. "It does have an escalating impact throughout the supply chain."

Clayton Boyce, spokesman for the American Trucking Association, said diesel prices are the worst he's 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.

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.

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."

Review-Journal writer Jennifer Robison contributed to this report.