HARMONY (AP) – A logging truck operator plans to turn the repossession of three of his 10 tractors into a public protest against skyrocketing diesel fuel prices that he says are threatening to drive him out of business.

Donald Hayden, who plans to file for corporate bankruptcy, will meet with banking representatives Friday at the parking lot behind the State House in Augusta. Hayden says he will be joined by other truckers who are also struggling to make payments and buy fuel.

“They wanted to pick up the tractors here in my yard,” Hayden said of the bankers, “but I persuaded them to do it this way by meeting them in Augusta, and they agreed.”

Those taking part in the protest will include logging truck operators from the Coalition to Lower Fuel Prices in Maine and the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine.

The 58-year-old president of Donald Hayden & Son Logging says diesel fuel was $2.60 a gallon when he bought the three trucks in 2006. Now, he says, the price has reached more than $4.15 a gallon.

Hayden, who has been in the business for 35 years, said each of his seven trucks uses about 100 gallons per day. The fuel cost for one truck alone is now $700 a week more than it was two years ago.

Hayden, who has also been impacted by increases in the price of tires and parts, said he recently had to lay off three of the seven drivers he has employed full-time over the winter.

He said he would be able to keep some of the older trucks that were his and not the corporation’s, which would allow him to continue to operate on a reduced scale.

“We’re going to stay in business, although not as this company,” Hayden said. “We are going through bankruptcy.”

At rallies this winter in Lincoln, Damariscotta and Skowhegan, truckers held up their keys and promised to park their rigs because of the fuel prices. Hayden said one company recently abandoned its equipment in the woods and walked out.

“We’re all in the same boat, including the people in the woods cutting the logs,” he said.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

AP-ES-03-24-08 1433EDT