EFFINGHAM, Ill. (KMOX) — If you drove between Marion and Effingham on I-57 last Saturday, you may have seen a line of trucks driving about 45 miles an hour.
That 100-mile trudge through south-central Illinois was a "slow roll" sponsored by the group Black Smoke Matters.
"This is, as far as I'm concerned, the start of the revolution," founder Joe Denney of Joplin, MO told KMOX's Brian Kelly.
He says the revolution is about new regulations that he says are putting all motorists in danger and hurting the independent owner/operators.
Black Smoke Matters member Pat Karns tells KMOX the required use of electronic logs is making it harder for independent drivers to make a living...and forcing company drivers to take more risks that could threaten the lives of innocent people.
"These company drivers don't have a choice. Their dispatchers are trying to get every mile per minute they have available out of these guys. So that's why you're seeing a lot more crashes...it's just pathetic."
Denney says their concerns not only include electronic logs and hours of service, but also training standards.
"We want these mega-companies to have better training standards than what they got," Denney emphatically stated. "Because they're killing innocent people out here every day and it's getting worse because of the almighty dollar."
Denney says they're building up to a nationwide independent truckers strike that will start on April 12th and last as long as it takes to get Washington's attention. He says they have to turn to such actions because they don't have lobbyists to pay off lawmakers to pass bills helping them.