DOZENS of hauliers took their protest against record-high diesel prices to the streets of London yesterday.
Drivers from as far afield as Wales joined in a noisy and colourful cavalcade of trucks which lined Park Lane in the heart of the capital.
First to arrive was haulage driver Mick Clifton, 37.
He said: “The price of fuel at the moment is ridiculous. We just don’t know whether our jobs are going to be safe.
“If Gordon Brown doesn’t do something about this soon he’ll be out of office.”
Travelling down from Lincolnshire was Melvyn Bright, 57, who runs a taxi firm.
He said: “The price of diesel at the moment is absolutely disgusting. All we are trying to do is earn a living. If fuel prices go up my earnings go down.”
Another arriving in London yesterday was Huw Thomas, 47, who runs a timber haulage company in Wales.
He said: “Fuel prices are absolutely ridiculous. It’s going to finish us in a few weeks the way things are going.
“We have to make our presence felt. I would certainly be in favour of blockading oil refineries.”
Supporting the protest in London yesterday was Road Haulage Association chief executive Roger King who urged the UK Government to abandon plans to raise fuel duty by 2p next October.
Mr King said: “We support a peaceful and legal protest and that is what this is. We think such an exercise helps underscore the real feelings hauliers have.
“We forecast that if prices continue to rise, hundreds of hauliers are going to go out of business.”
Many of the protesters had come from Kent yesterday and a delegation handed in a symbolic coffin to the Houses of Parliament where they were received by Labour MP Derek Wyatt.
Protesters handed in a letter summarising their grievances together with a copy of the Burns Inquiry undertaken more than two years ago.
The inquiry document advised the government and the haulage industry of the problems affecting the industry and set out ways to overcome them.
Hauliers are angry that in the last 12 months, the price of diesel at the pumps has surged by 30%.
The typical articulated vehicles that people see on the roads delivering goods now cost up to £1,000 in fuel a week.