Whether you're a long-hauler from El Paso or a port driver in Long Beach, independent truckers are buckling under the pressure of an average 30 percent increase in the cost of diesel relative to last year.

As one Missouri driver who has stopped hauling freight in a nationwide action to call attention to poor working conditions and the soaring price of fuel put it:

We're either going to go broke with our trucks parked or we're going broke out on the highway wearing our trucks out.

Every 5-cent increase in fuel prices increases a trucker's annual expenses by about $1,000, according to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. With the entire economic burden for truck operation on undercapitalized drivers, instead of the beneficial cargo owners, small wonder we encounter so many ill-maintained, diesel-spewing trucks at our nation's ports and on our highways.

This week's trucker shutdown additionally underscores a point made by LA Harbor Commission President David Freeman last week: "An owner-operator is by definition an independent, just the opposite of the workforce we need."

Presidential candidate Barack Obama recently noted that port drivers "are only independent in the sense that they own the truck they operate and are struggling to pay it off. Many of these truckers may be legally misclassified."

Freeman has a mandate to adopt policies that successfully reduce port pollution. At the same time, he must do so in a manner that ensures the Port of Los Angeles doesn't face a large-scale protest by port truckers, with big rigs backed up on the 710 "as far as the eye can see."

After all, the port is in the business of goods movement. Listen up Long Beach.