TRUCK convoys are gathering to protest about "the rocketing price of diesel".

Vehicles from across the News Shopper region are believed to be taking part in the demonstration which started this morning at the Medway Services on the M2 in Kent.

It will end with a rally in Park Lane, central London, and haulage company representatives will speak about problems in the industry from around 11.30am.

Symbolic coffin

A coffin will then be taken on the back of a 'low loader' lorry to the House of Commons, to represent the demise of the UK road haulage industry.

Members of protest group TransAction 2007 will then give a letter about the industry's problems to the Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP, Derek Wyatt.

They will also hand in a copy of the Burns Inquiry undertaken over 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.

Protestors are angry that the price of diesel at the pumps has surged by 30 per cent.

The typical articulated vehicles that people see on the roads delivering goods now cost up to £1,000 in fuel a week.

'Destroying our industry'

Mike Presneill, one of the protest organisers said: "Our industry is the lifeblood of the UK economy.

"Fuel is rising on a daily basis.

"It is now at levels that are bankrupting hundreds of small and medium-sized haulage companies.

"These are the companies that have been built up through hard work often over generations.

"To add insult to injury, foreign hauliers are arriving in the UK full to the brim with cheaper fuel and undercutting our rates.

"They are literally destroying our industry.

"They contribute nothing to our economy, take our jobs, wear out our roads and put nothing into the Exchequer.

"The Government is standing by and watching this happen."

  • What do you think of the price of fuel? Do you support the protest? Add your comments below.