Starting Thursday, October 1, we park it. No freight. Every driver who’s had enough, off the road at the same time — and we stay parked until they answer.
UnitedRigs is calling it, and we’re standing behind it. Not a rumor, not a maybe, not somebody’s viral video. A decision, made by drivers, announced in the open, with our name on it.
We’ve asked politely for years. We filed the comments, sent the emails, told the stories. Nothing changed. Diesel hit an all-time record, rates stayed on the floor, and we’re still sitting unpaid at docks that treat us like we’re in the way.
So on October 1 they get the one answer we’ve never given together: silence on the road.
Why October 1
- Diesel is at an all-time record. The national average hit $6.49 on September 19 (AAA), up from $3.71 a year ago — 75% higher. The government’s weekly number came in at $6.285, also a record.
- At the pump we’re paying $7.19 and up. The West Coast average is $7.25 and California $8.04. Truck-stop prices run above every one of those numbers.
- Illinois is at $6.66 with the Joliet refinery offline, squeezing supply across our region.
- Detention is still free money for the docks. The Department of Transportation’s own inspector general found detention drains $1.1 to $1.3 billion a year out of drivers’ pay, and that every extra 15 minutes stuck at a dock raises crash risk by about 6%.
- There’s nowhere to park. Roughly one space for every 11 trucks on the road. The clock says stop; the country says not here.
What that costs you: a truck running 2,500 miles a week at 6.5 mpg burns about 385 gallons. At $7.19 against last year’s $3.71, that’s roughly $1,340 more every week — about $67,000 a year. Your numbers will be different. None of them are good.
What we’re demanding
We don’t park for a news cycle. We park with a list, and the list is what ends it. This is what we want from Congress, the FMCSA and every agency that writes the rules we live under:
- Broker transparency, enforced. Every driver gets to see what the broker was paid on the load he hauled, within 48 hours, with real penalties when they refuse.
- Detention pay as a rule, not a favor. The clock starts at the appointment time. Our hours are our inventory, and nobody else has their inventory taken for free.
- Truck parking, funded and built. Enough legal, safe spaces that a driver at the end of his 14 isn’t choosing between a ticket and a violation.
- Relief at the fuel island. Action on diesel supply and the taxes stacked on top of it, before this record becomes the new normal.
- A seat at the table. Drivers — not just carriers and shippers — in the room when rules get written about our trucks and our hours.
How we do it, and do it right
This only works if we’re disciplined. One bad clip of a driver blocking a highway hands them the story. So here’s the standard:
- Deliver what you already accepted. We keep our word. Finish the load you booked, then shut it down. Our reputation is the whole argument.
- Park for as long as you can carry. Some of us can hold a day, some a week. Nobody is asking you to lose your truck. Park what you can afford to park, and tell us how long you’re in — that’s how we know where we stand.
- Park legally. Truck stop, yard, home, rest area. Never block a road, ramp, port, terminal or dock. We’re parking, not blockading.
- Plan your spot early. Parking is short on a normal Wednesday night. Know where you’re stopping before the 30th.
- Company drivers: check your ground first. Some group action by employees over pay and conditions is protected by federal law, and some isn’t. Talk to your carrier or a labor attorney before you park.
- Every driver speaks for his own truck. You decide what you haul, what you charge and how long you can hold out — always. This is drivers off the road with a list of demands aimed at Washington, not an agreement between carriers about rates.
- Keep it clean. No threats, no harassment, nothing said or thrown at drivers who keep rolling. We win this with numbers and cameras, not with heat.
Park it, then show it
- Post a photo of your parked rig on October 1 with #UnitedRigs and #ParkItOct1, and send it to us. We’ll put the wall of trucks up on this site.
- Say it in the comments below. Your name, your state, and that you’re in. Numbers on paper are what turn parked trucks into a movement.
- Tell one driver. Just one. Every driver who tells one more doubles this.
They’ve never had to notice us. Starting October 1, they will — and the wheels don’t turn again until they do.
Park it. Drivers, united.
Sources: AAA fuel prices · U.S. EIA weekly diesel prices · U.S. DOT Office of Inspector General, driver detention report · American Transportation Research Institute. Pump prices are what drivers are paying at the island. Last updated September 20, 2026.
