Truckers plan friendly protest with capital city parade

By Kevin Woster, Journal staff | Friday, April 18, 2008

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Organizers of a demonstration Monday, April 28 in Pierre to protest the rising cost of diesel fuel are planning a parade that they hope will include more than 200 trucks and other vehicles.

Corsica trucker Von Denning said Thursday the demonstration will begin at noon with a picnic of hamburgers and brats at Steamboat Park along the Missouri River in Pierre. After the picnic, protesters will cruise – truck by truck – past the state Capitol, he said.

“We hope to have 200 or 300 vehicles,” Denning said. “If truckers come, we’re asking them to bring the tractor, not the trailer.”

Denning said the protest is intended to be a friendly reminder of the importance of the trucking industry, the impact of rising fuel costs and their effects on the price of other products and services. Fuel costs are passed on to consumers through those increases, he said.

“It affects us as truckers, but it’s the bottom line to our grocery stores, farmers and ranchers, constructions companies,” Denning said. “We’re truckers, and we’re starting it. But it’s for everybody, to raise awareness.”

National news reports have focused on the repossession of homes but said little about the 52-percent increase in the repossession of trucks, Denning said.

“That’s quite an alarming figure, and these are the people who are putting the food on our grocery shelves,” he said. “We’re not raising it, but we’re distributing it.”

Dennis said he hopes to get representatives from implement dealers, grain elevators and the farm-ranch community involved.

“We figured somebody had to start this,” he said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com.

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