Children from the parliamentary creche enjoyed watching the trucks crawl past the Beehive, but the engine noise and air horns were a bit noisy for some. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Waikato truckie Adrian Norris is a little disappointed at the restrained approach truckies took during yesterday's nationwide protest.
"We should have done what they did in France - park on the highways and cripple the country. I'm surprised - some of these guys even stopped at the lights."
The 39-year-old father of four was part of a convoy of about 80 trucks that left Te Rapa for Hamilton as truckies throughout the country drove into cities yesterday morning in protest at the increase in road-user charges.
For Mr Norris, who has worked hauling coal for Colin Slater Contractors in Huntly for 10 years, yesterday's outpouring of support from the community was not a surprise.
"They [the Government] really have to open their eyes and see that the country is united and not happy with what's going on. People just can't take it any more."
He said Monday's announcement "strangely came at the same time they bought the railways back".
"They probably thought, 'Hey, how are we going to get this money back?' and thought, 'Hey, let'sput up road-user charges."'
He said the cost of the charges would be huge on top of the price of diesel, which is now $1.83 a litre.
He felt especially sorry for owner-operators in the industry who might not be able to absorb rising costs.
"Now people can't even afford take their families away for a decent bloody holiday.
"Our customers are the ones who are going to suffer because we are going to have to increase our costs - I think that's why there's so much support for us."
Road Transport Association area manager Gary Masters said that despite a few glitches including a "two-truck roadblock" which backed traffic up several kilometres and cut speeds to 5km/h on SH1 north of Cambridge, the protest was the "right vehicle at the right time".
"People are fed up so they jumped on board and supported us ... you didn't see too many upset people, did you ?"
He said yesterday's protest achieved a guarantee from Transport Minister Annette King that a working party would investigate the equity of road-user costs.
"We understand someone's got to pay, but as long as it is equitable."
