KEY POINTS:
Diesel hung in the air over Auckland's main street yesterday, but many truckies protesting against rises to road user charges never made it to the Golden Mile.
They were stuck in a jam of their own making which stretched about 20km down the Southern Motorway, before being instructed by protest organisers at 9am to turn around.
Although lines of big rigs made an impressive spectacle stretching down the Queen St hill and into surrounding roads, after converging on the central city from 7am, hundreds more turned off the motorway at exits such as Mt Wellington and Ellerslie.
Thousands of commuters _ some of them cheering the truckies _ legged it to work after being dropped short by buses trying to avoid getting stuck in the city centre. Trains and ferries were heavily patronised.
But many car drivers enjoyed faster trips to work than usual by either leaving home earlier, orreaping the benefits of roads left less congested by those who did.
Road Transport Forum officials estimated 2000 trucks took part in the Auckland protest, out of about 4500 nationally _ almost 20 per cent of registered heavy vehicles.
At an hourly vehicle cost of around $100, that would have meant the best part of $1 million.
But the organisers said it was worth it to show the Government the depth of outrage at its decision to raise road charges without notice.
Forum chief executive Tony Friedlander called the turnout a "stunning result" for a protest organised in less than three days.
Kelvin Bonney, a forum director who monitored the Auckland action from a helicopter lent free of charge, said most truckies obeyed a directive to keep left on motorways.
But a minority spread across all three lanes of the Southern Motorway, holding up long lines of traffic. The police said one truckie would be charged with careless driving and three others may face prosecution for impeding the flow of traffic after the official protest.
Auckland motorways policing manager Superintendent John Kelly said: "By and large the truck drivers behaved very well."
Mr Bonney said the hold-ups frustrated truckies who wanted to reach Queen St, but ended up stuck behind those on unauthorised go-slows.
He said protest organisers, working with the police and Transit NZ at an operations centre, were able to communicate with trucking firms to clear some of the blocks.
Even so, an empty northbound carriageway through Spaghetti Junction was a strange sight at 8am until a flood of cars was liberated by trucks leaving the motorway at Symonds St.
Auckland motorways police chief Superintendent John Kelly said truckies on the Northwestern and Northern Motorways largely kept to the plan, allowing relatively unimpeded trips by other drivers.
Heart of the City business association chief Alex Swney said that although most "non-discretionary" commuters arrived early for work, many shoppers stayed away.
But cafes did booming business and Camera & Camera shop owner Jim Ricketts reported "a couple of good sales" against a soundtrack of blaring truck horns.
