Truckers protest $620 diesel fill-up

The Associated Press

4/7/2008

EASTON, Pa. — Many drivers are shaking their heads at spending $50 to fill up their tanks.

But trucker Bob Conley has to fork over $620 for the 150 gallons of diesel his truck tanks.

Conley, a trucker from Norway, Maine, who recently filled up on Pennsylvania's Interstate 78, says he barely breaks even as an independent owner-operator.

Diesel has hit a record price of $4.18 a gallon on average in the mid-Atlantic region. That's double what Conley paid a year ago — and four times the price in 1999.

Truckers in Pennsylvania this weekend held a third protest rally over fuel costs, this one Saturday in Harrisburg.