Driving through the dusty street of Beijing’s southern depot, the air is heavy with grumbling.
“Business is no good,” says Liu, a wizened driver from Henan province. “I’ve got rent to pay, a kid in college, and I can hardly find work.” Diesel prices have soared, he complains, but “our revenue hasn’t gone up one bit”.
A strike by truck drivers at Shanghai’s port led to pitched battles with security forces last week, illustrating just how volatile the politics of high fuel prices can be in China. Operations at what is, by some measures, the world’s largest port appeared to be returning to normal on Sunday evening after the Shanghai city government ordered authorities to cut fees and reduce road tolls in a bid to get drivers back to work.