Here’s one for the logbooks, so to speak.

Truckers in Montana’s logging industry shut down their rigs on June 6 to protest low rates and high fuel costs.

According to The Missoulian, the truckers refused to deliver logs for Plum Creek Timber Co., Kalispell, MT, until the company agrees to increase its rates.

The truckers also planned to park their rigs on June 7 at the Flathead County Fairgrounds, where a rally was planned. Drivers from towns throughout northwest Montana were expected to attend.

The Missoulian reported that the timber company pays drivers $59 per hour, a rate the drivers claim is not based on real hours but rather on estimations of how long a drive should take.

The drivers claim that the actual rate comes out closer to $40 per hour when wait times and actual mileage are figured in. They are demanding a pay hike up to $70 an hour, which is what they say that three-axle local dump trucks are making.

Plum Creek officials, however, maintain that the rates it pays are determined by logging contractors, and not by the company itself.

Tom Ray, Plum Creek’s regional general manager, dismissed the shutdown, saying the majority of the company’s carriers were still hauling logs on June 6.