Ontario's major shippers and carriers have agreed to pass on fuel surcharges to independent truckers.

According to the Ottawa Sun, Economic Development and Trade Minister Al Palladini outlined the details of a formula deciding how much truckers will get.
The formula was worked out during a meeting with the trucking industry Monday. Palladini hopes the agreement will help diffuse the growing blockade war between the truckers and the companies that they work for, the article said.
Palladini also said the current dispute has been irritated by the fact that there are too many independent truckers on the road.
"That is part and parcel of the problem," he told the paper. "It's a very, very difficult situation especially when the competition is so fierce and we have more really than the industry can support."
The oversupply of owner-operators has led to the undercutting of contracts, which has meant many truckers are working for little or no profit.
Since July 1999, truckers have been struggling to deal with a 75 percent hike in fuel prices, and complaints that shipping companies and carrier firms collect fuel surcharges from customers but don't pass them on have been running rampant.
Ottawa-area truckers organized a series of blockades at oil refineries Monday to kick off a fuel protest after Ontario's independent truckers voted unanimously Sunday to stop shipping goods until the province regulates fuel surcharges. The local trucking union is expected to join the strike after a meeting tomorrow, the article said.
Palladini says if the companies refuse to pass on surcharges, the "culprits can be isolated" by the industry and dealt with.