Truck drivers protest.

Truck drivers throughout New Zealand took part in a stand-off this morning (Friday 4th July) in a protest against a road-user charge increase. There was about 4,400 trucks that took part in the protest which is approximately 20% of New Zealand's commercial transport fleet. The protest took place across all six of New Zealand's major cities, plus many more smaller cities. The minister of transport raised the price of road user chargers overnight after saying a year ago that one months notice would be given to any future price increases.

This has come at a time when the cost of living has increased by around 30 percent over the past year, All food, Drink, Fuel etc is delivered by trucks and the increase means that they have to pass on the increase to the consumers, So no surprises that the truck drivers recieved a huge amount of support from motorists. there were some motorists that couldn't help themselves and had to abuse the protestors, I guess some people dont understand how these increases affect them. Internet polls showed over 90% support for the truck drivers

The hardest hit city was Auckland where over 2,000 trucks slowly made their way into the city at a slow five kilometers an hour, and holding up thousands of motorists by blocking motorways, One particular motorway was backed up over 30 kilometers. Transit New Zealand asked the truck drivers to keep the fast lane free on the motorways to allow traffic through.

The protest officially started at 7:30 am and the congestion wasn't cleared until well after 1pm. As i looked out of the office window at work, all i could see was trucks, hundreds of trucks all tooting their air horns and rallying support, It was an amazing sight and sound, And if the government dosen't do something about it, They say they will protest again but next time it will disrupt even more.