Independent U.S. truckers mull halt over high fuel

By Janet McGurty

NEW YORK, March 31 (Reuters) - Some independent U.S. truckers are planning to stop hauling freight Monday and Tuesday in protest of record-high diesel prices that are cutting into profit margins.

Independent truckers, who constitute 90 percent of the nation's trucking fleet, are caught paying the high diesel price without any increase in their rates, according to a trade organization.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association wants Congress to enact legislation mandating a 100 percent pass through of fuel surcharges to the drivers as well as full transparency from trucking brokers match loads and drivers.

The organization does not call for strikes and gave no estimate of how many of its members might participate. "We do not tell our members what to do. They inform us of what they are doing and we support their decisions either way," said Norita Taylor, a spokeswoman for the group.

The OOIDA as about 161,000 members, slightly less than half of the 350,000 independent truckers in the United States. (Reporting by Janet McGurty, editing by Matthew Lewis)