(The following article by Stacie Hamel was posted on the Omaha World-Herald website on May 1. )
OMAHA, Neb. — Independent truckers protesting high fuel prices in California picketed a second rail terminal near San Francisco on Friday and refused to work in Los Angles.
Truckers displaying signs on their rigs protesting rising diesel fuel prices drive slowly on 110 Freeway Friday, April 30, 2004, during a protest in Los Angeles.
Union Pacific Railroad, which has six intermodal terminals in the L.A. area, expanded an embargo Friday that began with its Lathrop terminal in Northern California, where truckers first began protesting this week, said Bob Turner, senior vice president.
The truckers are protesting high fuel prices in California – at least partly a result of the state’s clean-air requirements – and the fees they are paid by the trucking companies they work for as subcontractors.
U.P.’s embargo will include Oakland, where truckers began protesting Friday, and the six L.A. terminals. It takes at least 48 hours for an embargo to take effect because of shipments already en route.
The Associated Press reported that truckers parked their rigs on a busy freeway outside Los Angeles on Friday morning, snarling rush-hour traffic for miles in a wildcat protest over high diesel prices. About 700 protested at separate rallies, AP said.
While the California Trucking Association has opposed the protest, it has sought other solutions to soaring fuel prices. On Friday, it requested that Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger allow federally approved diesel fuel to be sold in California and that he request an investigation of market manipulation.
The embargo shuts off rail shipments of intermodal containers to the eight terminals if they are intended to be hauled away by independent truckers. Containers with permit numbers are allowed because they indicate the rail customer is providing its own driver, not a contracted independent driver.
Turner said the embargo will limit the number of containers arriving by rail when truckers are not showing up to haul them away. The containers will not be shipped, he said, rather than being diverted to other terminals.
“The intention of the embargo is that they aren’t leaving the point of origin, so they’re not being shipped at all,” he said. “It’s the only way that railroads can control the number of cars coming onto their system.”
The eight terminals normally would handle 6,700 containers a day.
The American Automobile Association said California diesel prices were as high as $2.41 a gallon, compared with less than $2 a gallon in other states.