"Heaven help us because the government won't," read the banner on the first lorry in the queue on the London-bound side of the Westway. Its owner, Manny Brookes, from Bennington, in Kent, wasn't optimistic about the future.
"[Fuel price rises] are costing my company between £500-600 more per week since January. We're only a small family company and we've passed some of our costs to our customers, but we can't do it any more," he said.
"I work with my two sons who take no wages. My business will definitely fold in the next six months. I'm really, really angry. 'Heaven help us' is our motto because that's how we feel. I don't want to be here today, I'd rather be working. I'm 58 this year and getting too old for this."
Other hauliers who had gathered on foot to protest outside parliament also felt uncertain about the future of family businesses. Claire Wevell, the co-owner of Wevell Haulage, based in Looe, Cornwall, wore a T-shirt that read "Cornish hauliers say no to doing it dreckley". Dreckley, she explained, was Cornish dialect for taking their time - time she said that was fast running out.
"The business was started nearly 50 years ago and unfortunately we won't be here in six months. One of our employees has been with us for 35 years - what are they going to do if they're made redundant? It's in our blood. My husband, Guy, was born into it. Lorry drivers are a different breed, they work hard because they love it."
Practical matters were on Steve Radvand's mind. He owns a business that employs five people in Oxford.
"People keep talking about the things we will have to do to stay afloat, like remortgaging our houses to raise the cash, but that's just rubbish," he said. "No one can afford to take that sort of gamble. What will really happen is either we'll all go bankrupt, or we'll fold up the business before we can go bankrupt. That way, generations of hard work will all go to waste, and what will we do then?"
Some complained that the availability of cheaper fuel on the continent meant mainland European hauliers were able to undercut prices.
John Ford, from Ashford, Kent, said unfair competition was a serious issue. "There needs to be a universal agreement of policy on an all-round level within Europe, so that someone in Belgium is paying roughly the same prices as someone in the UK."
The owners of bigger haulage companies came to protest too. Brendan Hayward, from Walsall, said his company, which employs 40 staff, was still making a profit.
"Our company's strong but we're hurting. Hauliers are the meat in the sandwich between government and customers. We should be classed the same as coach companies - as an essential - and given a break. We're still in profit but we're working damn hard for very little return. But we're hauliers, that's what we do."
There was, unsurprisingly, little sympathy for comments made by the Conservative MP Tim Yeo, the chair of the cross-party environmental audit committee, who said giving in to hauliers' demands would work against cutting carbon emissions.
Grahame Taylor, who owns TM Logistics and employs 350 people, said: "Over the last 10 years, the haulage industry has reduced emissions dramatically - our equipment is much cleaner than it used to be and much cleaner than everyone seems to imagine. So playing the environmental card is a non-runner. It's about time we got something back."
