Some port truckers shut down in Oakland to protest fuel prices, surcharges
Some truckers who haul containers in and out of the Port of Oakland shut down this week to protest the fact that their pay has not gone up enough to counter punishing fuel costs. Diesel has been about $4.57 per gallon in California’s Bay area this week.
Protest organizer Ajit Singh Gill has been traveling back and forth from the Port of Oakland and the Lathrop and Stockton rail yards to meet with truckers who have shut down because they can’t afford to fill up their trucks. Some are left with only $54 a day – after paying for fuel – to cover operating expenses and their wages.
“We really don’t consider this a shutdown. It’s just that these drivers can’t afford to drive anymore,” Gill said. “People should understand that they are not making enough money to pay for their trucks, their insurance and everything else they need.”
Gill told Land Line on Thursday, May 8, that some drivers are hauling loads from Stockton to Gilroy for a flat rate of $210 per round-trip, plus a $24 fuel surcharge. With fuel costs running them around $180 per trip, Gill said they are left with just $54 per round trip. Because of traffic and wait times at weigh scales and at docks, he said these truckers are only able to make one round-trip a day.
Some drivers on the West Coast are paying as much as $1,500 each week for fuel, according to one source Land Line spoke to on Thursday, May 8.
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