Hey Dan;

Just wanted to applaud your efforts yesterday at the Albany truckers protest! Good for you guys! You and yours are right on the mark with the fuel taxes, price of fuel and inattention/lack of response from elected officials. From the Administration on down to local politicos there is a blind eye turned our way.

We are a group of independent log truck owner/operators out in Washington state. (Southwest Washington to be specific)  Tomorrow (6/21) we are staging a fuel protest at Exit 72 off of Interstate 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.   This is our second protest since April. The high cost of diesel is killing us all and we are slated for a fuel tax increase July 1 of nine and a half cents a gallon.

It is our goal tomorrow to get some answers from our politicians and a “holiday” from the tax increase. Washington state has one of the highest fuel tax rates in the nation; we pay 28 cents per gallon now with 37 cents peeking over the horizon. Couple that with federal fuel tax and we are out of the park.

The log truckers in the state have not had a raise in hauling compensation since 1986! I know that sounds unbelievable, but true. The surcharges paid by Weyerhaeuser Corporation (the big gun in this area) is at 17% — an insult for sure.  We are at the liberty of the logging contractors who set the hauling rates and have been working with our state legislators for a “rubber stamp” approval of negotiating our own fees. We had a Bill in the hopper this past session that made it out of committee and back to the floor for a vote, but died there because of the “short session” this year (every other year we have a regular session and we’ll be back in 09 to push the Bill through.)

This has gotten lengthy, but I wanted to give you a peek at what we are doing and who we are.  I’ll be giving an interview today on Sirius Radio’s Trucker News with Evan Lockridge at 2 p.m. your time.  Take a listen if you have a chance.

I would love to see ALL OF US TRUCKERS have protests either simultaneously or concurrently until we get some action. Small businesses are being upended for sure.  Take care and pass my congratulation to your members !

Sincerely,

Sherrie Bond
Executive Director
Northwest Log Truckers Cooperative
360-880-4818