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LEADING TRUCKER FAULTS PROTESTS

2/25/00

'It's not other drivers' fault'

BY TANYA ALBERT and MIKE BOYER The Cincinnati Enquirer Blocking highways isn't the way for truck drivers to protest high gasoline prices, a leader with a national organization that represents 47,000 independent drivers said Thursday.

If you want to protest, park your truck at the state capitol and talk to the lawmaker, said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. This isn't the way to draw attention. It's not other drivers' fault.

In pockets between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, Wednesday, truckers, mainly independent drivers who have watched soaring gas prices eat into their profits, slowed to 40 mph or less. They turned on their hazard lights, spread across traffic lanes and formed rolling roadblocks.

Dayton commuters were hit by 2-mile backups in Wednesday night's rush hour. Closer to Cincinnati, drivers on southbound Interstate 75 in Sharonville about 11:30 p.m. got stuck behind about 30 trucks going 40 mph. Two other convoys of 100 to 200 slow-moving trucks were reported earlier Wednesday night on suburban Cincinnati stretches of I-75.

It didn't create a major problem for us, said Lt. Alan Hayes with Sharonville police.

Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers cited three truck drivers in Dayton on Wednes day. Sharonville police wrote one ticket. All the drivers were cited for impeding traffic.

On Thursday, police from Cincinnati to Dayton said there didn't appear to be any problems.

We were led to believe we were going to be hit again this (Thursday) morning, but nothing happened, Lt. Hayes said.

Like commuters, truck drivers have been watching fuel prices climb for months. Diesel fuel spiked to $2.69 a gallon in Maine a week and a half ago, Mr. Spencer said.

That is basically going to mean a $5,000 net loss to an owner-operator, Mr. Spencer said. Prices rise so quickly and you can't possibly do anything to offset the costs.

Company-paid truck drivers empathize.

It's getting bad. I'm seeing prices 30 and 40 cents more a gallon,' said Mike Langford of Birmingham, Ala., during a stop at the I-71/75 rest stop in Florence on Thursday afternoon.

The steel hauler works for Trinity Industries, so he doesn't have to absorb spiraling costs. But he understands.

I was an independent driver myself until 1989, he said. The prices weren't as high then as they are now, but you couldn't make any money.

Dale Brown of Hannibal, Mo., was hauling plastic cups to Shreveport, La., when he hit a slowdown by truckers Wednesday night outside St. Louis.

I'm paid by the mile, so it doesn't bother me, he said.

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-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 25, 2000