Trucking Protests A No-Show In Northwest

BUSINESS 

By Chris Lehman

Salem, OR  April 1, 2008 5:23 p.m.

Truck drivers protested high fuel prices by staging rolling road-blocks in places like Illinois and New Jersey Tuesday. It was business as usual for most Northwest truckers, though.  Correspondent Chris Lehman has more.

A sign tells the tale of high fuel prices at this truck stop near Salem

Drivers at one truck stop north of Salem said CB radios were abuzz with talk of a possible one-day shutdown of the trucking industry.

Many said they drove for  companies and weren’t as worried about fuel prices as the independent owner-operators.

Their lack of concern was evident as many were idling their trucks within view of a sign advertising diesel for $4.03 a gallon.

Sandor Lau of Oregon-based Cascade Sierra Solutions said those truckers were wasting fuel even while they took a break from the road.

Sandor Lau:  “There are devices called APU’s, Auxilliary Power Units, that help people stop idling their trucks all night long, and they can save up to eight, nine, ten percent of their fuel that’s just normally burned away, wasted, idling.”

Lau says more truckers are stopping in at Cascade Sierra’s headquarters near Eugene to ask about fuel-saving measures.  The environmental non-profit hopes to open another location near Portland next month.

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© 2008 OPB