LONDON—Hundreds of trucks converged on London on Tuesday driven by British road haulers demanding help over rocketing fuel prices.
They say fuel bills have risen by almost half in a year and launched the protest as members of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling Labour Party, fearful after dismal electoral results, called for a rethink of plans for fuel and road tax increases.
Haulers say the sharp rise in fuel costs has put many of their businesses at risk and added to inflationary pressures as the rising costs trickle down into the prices of goods in shops.
They are calling on the government to give them a fuel rebate as essential users to keep the country moving.
"If we don't work the country doesn't work. It is as simple as that," said Stephen Taylor, head of warehousing and distribution firm TM Logistics.
"Unfortunately so much of the essential products that are getting around the UK really have to go by road. It is only a matter of a few days before things grind to a halt."
Taylor said he estimated that around 85 percent of goods were carried by road around the country.
Police said more than 200 trucks were parked on a main artery leading into central London from the west, the only designated area set aside for them.
The drivers went to a rally in Hyde Park before moving off again to hand in a petition at Brown's Downing Street office.
A similar protest also took place in Wales as heavy trucks headed to Cardiff.
Diesel fuel is now around 130 pence ($2.57) a litre in Britain—more than double the price in the United States.
Britain levies the highest fuel duty in the European Union with nearly 65 per cent of the pump price of petrol due to tax.
Adding to the woes for Brown, his personal approval ratings scraping rock bottom after 11 months in power, 42 lawmakers signed a petition calling for proposed increases in vehicle excise duty to be abandoned.
Some 30 Labour parliamentarians also called for a proposed two pence rise in fuel duty, already postponed by six months to October, to be shelved.
Brown was recently forced into an embarrassing climbdown on a change to the basic rate of income tax which would have hit the poorest hardest. It has increased speculation about his future as prime minister.
The haulage protests stirred memories of fuel demonstrations in 2000 when prices hit one pound a litre and protesters blockaded oil refineries.
Then as now, the demonstrations started in France and spread to Britain.
"The fuel duty gap was important in 2001 and is even more pressing now, with the UK awash with foreign trucks using low-taxed diesel. We urgently need to look afresh at this issue," the head of the Road Haulage Association wrote in a letter to the Treasury. "Feelings are running high."
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