Truckers' convoy bound for Washington

Monday, March 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- More than 100 truckers pulled out of Oklahoma City's TA Truck Stop Monday morning bound for Washington, D.C., to plead their case in the face of rising fuel prices and low freight rates.

The convoy expected to converge on the nation's capital on Thursday isn't the first this year.

"We told the people in Washington that we'd be back if we didn't get relief," said Kevin Miller, who is representing the National Owner-Operator Truckers Association and organized the Interstate 40 convoy with his wife, Rhonda. "We're going to get it done or we're going to stay until it gets done."

"We've got carriers shutting their doors and truckers who can't even give their trucks back," Miller said.

Truckers in the convoy stopped to rest in Oklahoma City en route to the Washington rally of an estimated 2,000 truckers to promote
higher freight rates and lower fuel prices. Five convoys of trucks are hauling across the country to meet for Thursday's rally.

The convoy began with seven truckers in Ontario, Calif., Friday. Hundreds have joined since then.

Husband and wife trucker team Kurt and Carol Loeffelholz drove 24 hours straight through from California to catch up to the convoy
when they heard about it.

The Loeffelholzes said it is costing them $300 to $400 more a week in fuel to run their trucks. Their fuel bill is higher than their truck payments.

"We can't afford to go, but we can't afford not to go," Loeffelholz said via his cell phone. "We can last about a month more before we're headed for bankruptcy."

Carol Loeffelholz said they have used up their savings and dropped their health insurance to keep their two trucks on the road. She figures the trip is costing them about $1,000, as they
run without a load from California.

Eric Zephyr, president of the American Reform Association, said he is driving the 1995 Peterbilt truck he calls his "company car"
to Washington to promote the Truckers Bill-of-Rights.
Zephyr said the TBOR is a demand for change in the trucking industry. He said the legislation asks the Congress for the elements and privileges of the Fair Labor Act of 1937 to be applied to the trucking industry.

"The trucking industry doesn't have that, and we thinks it's time," said Zephyr, noting that many truckers are running seven days a week and two or three months straight without days off.

The truckers are also upset about freight rates and want the laws to be the same for residents of each state as they are for truckers passing through.

Raymond Boyd of Springfield, Mo., was one of the original seven who began the convoy in California.

Boyd said after a mid-afternoon rest stop in Little Rock, Ark., they would spend Monday night in Memphis, Tenn. The convoy expects
to roll into Washington early Thursday morning.

Miller said most of the trucking organizations and teamsters groups will be represented in Washington with the convoys.

More than 200 truckers, organized by the National Owner Operator Trucking Association, converged on the U.S. Capitol in February in a convoy that began in New Jersey and traveled through Delaware and
Maryland.

Truckers are angry that fuel prices have been rising steadily since last March, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries cut crude oil production by 7.5 percent to boost prices that had fallen to 12-year lows.