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London: Hundreds of trucks rolled into central London yesterday to jam a major route into the capital in a protest at the rising price of fuel.
About 300 vehicles sounded horns and parked on a highway on the edge of the city, forcing police to close a section of road and divert hundreds of motorists during the busy morning rush hour.
The truckers were protesting the soaring costs of gas and diesel and calling for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government to lower fuel taxes for trucking companies.
Peter Carroll, the 47-year-old owner of a hauling firm in Maidstone, southern England, said organisers hoped as many as 1,000 trucks would join the protest convoy.
He said the cost of fuel for his 51 vehicles had risen by £43,000 (Dh322,500) per month since October. "It's getting to a point of being ridiculous. We simply can't keep pace with the rising costs," he said as he joined the protest in London.
Jobs in jeopardy
Record-high oil prices have helped drive the cost of diesel in Britain to more than £1.20 a litre. Truckers say thousands of jobs in their industry are in jeopardy. "It is a concern. Everybody is feeling the impact of the increased cost of living, it is not restricted to one sector," said legislator Louise Ellman, head of the House of Commons Transport committee.
Carroll said hauling companies will press Brown to offer them a rebate of about 25 pence a litre on the cost of fuel. A delegation of truckers was heading to the leader's Downing Street residence yesterday to hand in a letter calling for action.
Heavy goods vehicle operators hope to strike a similar deal to the terms offered to bus companies, which are reimbursed some of their fuel taxes, Carroll said.
Protests in London follow demonstrations in France, where fishermen blocked ports last week and disrupted deliveries to two refineries of oil company Total SA.
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