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Haulier Robbie Green says no-one wants to protest

In the autumn of 2000 the eastern region was brought to a standstill and the country was nearly brought to its knees as hundreds of hauliers and farmers protested over the price of fuel.

Day after day slow-moving convoys clogged up the main roads, oil depots were blockaded and many garages ran dry.

Then petrol was nudging 80p a litre. Now it's getting close to doubling in price. So where are the protests?

Although there are plenty of bloggers and websites calling for direct action, it seems almost certain that there won't be. It's partly because of the economic climate: hauliers cannot afford to take time off to demonstrate and they know they'd get little public support if a drawn-out campaign started to inconvenience people.

Hauliers fearful

But we've discovered that there is another reason why they won't do anything - they're fearful of the consequences.

Several hauliers have told us that the licensing system has been tightened and they would probably be prevented from driving commercially ever again if they staged a go-slow or blockaded a refinery.

"To hold an operator's licence you need something called a Certificate of Professional Confidence (CPC)," says Robbie Green who was one of the leaders of a blockade of an oil depot in Norfolk back in 2000.

"One of the stipulations of a CPC is that you must be seen to be of good repute and what they're saying now is that if you protest, you're not of good repute, so we'll take your licence away. That's why no-one wants to protest."

Many of those who led the protests of 2000 have now left the business - partly because they could no longer afford to run an expensive truck but partly because of what happened when they went back to work. Several have told us that they started receiving visits from officials who went through their books and their bank accounts.

"It wasn't nice, it was quite stressful," says Mr Green. "The tax people investigated us to see whether we'd been paid any extra money for bribes - they were convinced we were trying to bring the government down."

John Bridge, who was a director of the at the time, agrees: "Many of our members were visited by various parts of the authorities who looked at different parts of their business including their taxation and maintenance arrangements.

"They had been demonstrating quite legally and many feel this kind of scrutiny was something they don't want to repeat."

The then government was spooked by the protests which took ministers by surprise and they vowed that such scenes should never be repeated.

The police were told to fully enforce the law - to prosecute drivers who deliberately drove slowly and ensure that picket lines were not over-manned. Plans were put in place to secure oil refineries more quickly.

Harder line

"Since 2000 the police have adopted a much harder line," says Geoff Dunning of the Road Haulage Association.

"When the price of fuel spiked in 2008 what limited protests there were were dealt with much more firmly and that's the sort of thing we have to take into account."

Even the present government would probably use the law to restrict any protests. A spokesman for the told us that under the 1992 Road Traffic Act, the Government has the right "to impose temporary restrictions on the use of roads by certain vehicles if necessary".

The industry has therefore decided to concentrate on lobbying. has attracted thousands of signatures and the support of many MPs.

"It's clear that this sort of political effort is beginning to influence the government," says Geoff Dunning. "We don't need blockades or protests."

"With the economic situation as it is, work is not as readily available to drivers and people don't have the availability of trucks to protest that they used to have," says John Bridge, now .

"That's another reason why we aren't seeing protests now. I also think hauliers don't want to hurt the public or cause any more difficulty for people."

The world has changed - drivers don't feel that large-scale protests would really work.

And following their experiences in 2000, they're too cowed to take direct action.

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