I'm going to try and get some "on the ground" reports on this. But, it looks like the truckers are still holding strong despite the police presence.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=6127558
OAKLAND, CA (KGO) -- Police officers will be out in force at the Port of Oakland following a rowdy trucker protest Tuesday.
Diesel prices are going up faster than gas prices. The truckers said they're not getting reimbursed and it cost upwards of $600 to fill up their trucks. Diesel is going up faster than gas by 30 cents a gallon and has gone up more than $1 this year over last. Gas prices in comparison have risen 70 cents this year over last.
Protesters say the companies which hire them to do the hauling are not honoring an agreement to pay them back. Motor carriers are being fair and are paying them back. One trucker says the protesters haven't scared her away.
"I really haven't seen it where it's got real bad, where I could go ahead and tell my boss - 'I'm not coming in because I'm afraid.' But no, so far they have been calming everything down. There have been cops here, so that helps," said Dolores Rodriguez, trucker.
Rodriguez works for a carrier and she's not an independent trucker. It's the independents who are hurt most by the cost of the diesel fuel prices.
Testimony yesterday before a Congressional committee by a small trucking company representative said about 1,000 small trucking companies have gone out of business in the past year. A lot of that is due to the increase in diesel prices.
