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4 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, October 24, 2000 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" Protest with a purpose Area truckers who joined convoy say they're fighting for their livelihood By Rik Davie Special to the Star Wednesday Oct. 18, 3 p.m., The middle of a 100 truck convoy winding slowly across Hwy. 401 escorted by police services from three different jurisdictions. This is not where Lou Bell or Bill Blundell expected to be today. They drive their tractor-trailer gravel trucks slowly through Toronto, part of the biggest fuel price protest in recent memory; they phi- losophize on what brought them to this point. 3:30 p.m. As the convoy leaves Durham Region, media cameras leap-frog past the trucks to get their video clips. OPP and Toronto police motorcycles rush ahead of the 1.5 kilometre con- voy to clear traffic from the collector lanes on lie 401. "If you asked me three weeks ago if 1 ~ would be part of this protest, | would have ~ told you no way," says Lou Bell. An owner-operator of two gravel . haulers, he lives in Blackstock with his wife . Suzanne, in a home he and his brothers ~ built. He has three children, and has dri- . ven for over 20 years. He built a business ~ from the ground up and now, in his 40s, he is nearly broke in money and spirit. "The profit margin for gravel haulers is so small that we just are not making a liv- ing any more," says Mr. Bell. "This isn't just about fuel prices; it's about the way the (business) must be reorganized." 4:40 p.m. Other truckers talk to the convoy drivers over the Citizen's Band (CB) radios, and - some car drivers sound their horns in support. The big rigs sound their air-horns to the people cheer- "ing the convoy from overpasses as the city of | Toronto looms in the windshield. While Mr. Bell was once able to fuel his two 150-gallon gas tanks for around $500. The price is now over $800, and his big Peterbuilt diesel is a fuel-hungry master. He burns 400 litres of fuel a day running gravel and other aggregates from pits around Scugog Township to job sites and road construction sites all day long, some- times six and seven days a week. "At the end of the week the profit is not there for us (gravel haulers) any more, but we are stuck," says Mr. Bell. Drivers with truck and mortgage payments must drive ever-increasing hours just to maintain a cash flow and stay afloat. But like men treading water, the drivers are growing tired and weak... until Wednesday. After several weeks of small protests by freight and gravel haulers - members of the National Truckers Association, headed by a trucker from Oshawa named Bill Wellman - talks with Minister of Transportation Al Palladini aimed at ensuring fuel surcharges go directly to the owner-operators fell apart. Mr. Wellman and his vice-president Keith Swayne resigned in disgust. The truckers gathered at a Whitby truck stop for a last stand. Lou Bell of Blackstock, above, was one of dozens of independent truckers who joined a convoy down Hwy. 401 to Brampton last week. Truckers are fighting against what they say are prohibitively high fuel costs, and low returns for their ser- vices. They closed down a Chrysler plant during their demonstration, but were blocked from gaining access to Queen's Park. \ the protest from the beginning, summed it up for the media Tuesday night when he shouted to the cameras: "Get the message out to every trucker out there. Come here and join us or park your trucks, but stop rolling right now. This is the last kick at the cat." Mr. Jones, a burly Havelock trucker who goes by the nickname Bear, has become somewhat of a trucker's folk hero for his blunt and straightforward media state- ments. He is the voice truckers most asso- ciate with the protest and when he speaks, people listen. In North Durham, Bill Blundell, a long- time Blackstock resident now living in Cannington, was organizing local gravel haulers to close area gravel pits in protest over high fuel costs and low load rates. He and Mr. Bell, friends who haul from the same pits, heard the call from Bear Jones. Mr. Bell says he felt there was no choice but to join the truckers' action. "I don't agree with these types of protests. I'm not sure that the benefit is there, but one thing | became sure of was if we did not stick together on this, it would go badly for all of us. I had to (go)," says Mr. Bell. 5 p.m. As the convoy reaches the halfway point of its trip across Toronto, the exit ramps speed by Each is being manned by officers from the OPP and Toronto Police, and are blocked to prevent truckers from heading to Queen's Park. Lines of cars sit idle at the ramps as cops explain to the dri- vers lined up to get on Canada's largest highway that today the trucks own the road. "Well they can't say that some of the public don't back us," a voice boomed over the CB radio. "Look at 'em out there, waving and honking." Some drivers, frustrated at the slow- down, dart in front of gaps in the huge line of trucks, looking for openings. Only the skill of the men behind the wheels of the big rigs prevents several near crashes. Another voice is heard on the CB: "You guys are wasting your time," says a trucker in the eastbound lanes. "You won't accom- plish (anything)." The voice of a trucker at the head of the westbound convoy booms an answer to him: "That's the kind of hard-core spirit that made Canada great, buddy." Mr. Bell talks of his friend Mr. Blundell, who's driving a truck in the convoy with his wife and two small children along for the fuel crisis has built over past weeks. "Bill is the guy you want to talk to," says Mr. Bell. "He is trying to organize a meet- ing between us and the aggregate produc- ers to set rates that are more in line with what we need. We know the profits are there, but they have to pass some of it on down the line. Short term measures will only postpone things for these guys." 6:45 p.m. The line of trucks has snaked it's way across the city and north to the Bramplon Chrysler plant. They ring the plant with well over 100 trucks. As the line moves into position, the sound of blasting air brakes sounds like the sigh of 100 mighty beasts as they set down their heavy loads. Mr. Bell climbs down from the cab of the Peterbuilt and ambles over to his friend Mr. Blundell. Bill Blundell presents an interesting picture of what the media are now calling The Road Warriors. He is surrounded by a group of drivers as he chatters away on the cell phone. Nearby his wife Patty plays with their young chil- dren, five-year-old Brady and Tanner, two. Mr. Blundell talks rapid-fire to the phone, but slows and measures his words to the media when the question of why he is here comes. He is direct, to the point. "To make things better," he says. "To be able to make a living, and work a little less for a little more. The needs here are sim- ple." His wife Patty has an even more direct explanation for doing this as a family. "It's been very tough for us," she says, "but seeing this (the convoy) makes it worthwhile for us. "To be able to have him home more is worth not having him home at all for these past few days. We couldn't go on the way we were." An older driver sums it up as he leans on the side of a truck outside the giant plant he has helped close. "I should be thinking about retirement down the road soon," the big, quiet, grandfather says. "Instead | have night- mares about them finding me in line for gravel, dead, behind the wheel of my truck." 11:30 p.m. The plans to close gravel pits across Durham have been made for the morning. The truckers begin to fire up the big rigs for the trip to their homes across Durham Region, and the rest of the province. One at a time, the big rigs lumber back out onto the highway. The big Cummins and Detroit diesels scream oul as the gears shift and race east for home Lou Bell, back behind the wheel to ride home for a few hours of sleep before he sets out to block a gravel pit somewhere, reflects on the toll this protest is taking home. "My wife knows how strongly | feel," he says. "So I've got that support." But it is the price paid by his family that angers the quiet man. "It's when you have to say no to the kids for something or other," he said. "They see how hard we work and my wife rips a strip off me for the hours | have to work = and she's right, but what do | do. "I pay my bills, so | have to run" | a.m. The lights of Lou Bell's trailer fade into the distance of a quiet country road. He is a repre- sentative of the truck drivers who continue the fight against fuel and haulage rates going on in Ontario. Road Warriors? Most of them would dis- Brian Jones, a gravel hauler involved in RAPS ARB PPAR P TaD A aA BPM NB PPAR PPAR Pa nD Pun, et ride. Mr. Blundell has not, sat idlyby.asdhe TOE DE DR-HHIE Blt 0h Th DID TRE YDle.