Driving through the dusty street of Beijing’s southern depot, the air is heavy with grumbling.

　　驾车驶过北京南部货运站那条尘土飞扬的街道时，耳边一片抱怨之声。

　　"Business is no good," says Liu, a wizened driver from Henan province. “I’ve got rent to pay, a kid in college, and I can hardly find work.” Diesel prices have soared, he complains, but “our revenue hasn’t gone up one bit”.

　　“生意不好，”来自河南、身材干瘦的司机老刘说道。“我得付房租，还有个孩子在念大学，很难找到活儿。”他抱怨说，柴油价格猛涨，但“我们的收入却一点儿都没涨”。

　　A strike by truck drivers at Shanghai’s port led to pitched battles with security forces last week, illustrating just how volatile the politics of high fuel prices can be in China. Operations at what is, by some measures, the world’s largest port appeared to be returning to normal on Sunday evening after the Shanghai city government ordered authorities to cut fees and reduce road tolls in a bid to get drivers back to work.

　　上周，上海港的货车司机举行罢工，并与安全部门发生了激烈冲突。这显示出高油价在中国可以造成的政治不稳。冲突爆发后，上海市政府命令有关部门减免多项收费，并降低过路费，以期让司机们重返工作岗位。周日晚间，上海港的运营似乎在逐步恢复正常。从一些指标来看，上海港是全球第一大港口。

　　But the complaints of Shanghai’s truck drivers as they slowly return to work are being echoed across the country as high fuel prices cut into profit margins for China’s independent truckers.

　　但由于高油价挤压了中国个体货车司机的利润，就在上海的货车司机慢慢复工之际，全国各地都出现了类似的抱怨。

　　China’s transportation sector is struggling to cope after the government raised fuel prices twice this year in response to increasing global oil prices.

　　随着全球油价不断上涨，中国政府今年已两次提高燃油价格，令中国的运输行业难以招架。

　　Trucking is big business in China, with road freight revenues amounting to $129.7bn last year, according to research from Datamonitor. And for young men from the countryside, buying a truck to tap into that sector is a big step up the economic ladder.

　　中国货车运输业规模十分庞大。Datamonitor的研究显示，去年，中国公路货运收入总额高达1297亿美元。对于农村地区的年轻人而言，购置一辆卡车跑货运，可以大大改善经济状况。

　　But while almost everyone else in China has seen their incomes increase in recent years, truckers have experienced the reverse, with fuel price rises the main reason for that.

　　但近年来，虽然几乎每个中国人的收入都在增长，货车司机的境遇却恰恰相反，主要原因就是油价上涨。

　　State-set diesel prices are at historic highs, with China’s diesel price now more than 30 percent above its 2008 peak due to recent reforms. For independent truckers, their vehicles have become a burden.

　　由政府决定的柴油价格目前处于历史高位。最近几次调价后，中国目前的柴油价格较2008年的此前最高水平高出逾30%。对于个体货车司机而言，他们的车辆已成为一种负担。

　　"We have no way out, and that’s the truth,” Mr Liu says. He has tried selling the truck he bought for Rmb30,000 ($4,600), roughly three years’ salary, after working on construction sites for 20 years, so he can try his hand at something else. But he has not been able to find a buyer.

　　“说老实话，我们已经没有出路了，”老刘说道。在建筑工地上跑了20年后，他试图卖掉当初以3万元人民币（合4600美元，大概相当于他3年的工资）买来的卡车。这样，他就能试着做些其它事情。但他一直找不到买家。

　　In Shanghai, drivers tell similar stories of hardship. “Most of us live in small communal rooms with our families,” said a truck driver in Shanghai’s Baoshan port. “There are no kitchens, no bathrooms.”

　　上海的货车司机们也讲述着类似的艰辛故事。“我们大部分人都和家人住在狭小的合租屋内，”上海宝山港的一位货车司机说道。“没有厨房，也没有洗手间。”

　　A driver there can earn Rmb70,000 to Rmb80,000 a year, excluding maintenance and living costs, he says, but most of this is eaten up by freight agents and management companies. “The logistics companies give us the same pay today as they did several years ago when diesel was just Rmb4 a litre,” he says. Diesel now costs twice that amount.

　　他表示，除去车辆维修保养费和生活成本，那里的司机每年可以挣到7万至8万元人民币，但其中大部分落到了货运公司和管理公司手中。“物流公司给我们的工资，与几年前柴油价格还是每升4块钱的时候一样，”他说。目前，柴油价格较那时已经涨了一倍。

　　One problem is that there are so many independent truckers in China that each feels they will lose business if they raise their prices even slightly. That overcapacity also makes clan ties and provincial origins particularly important in determining who gets work, and several trucking groups in the Shanghai ports are organised around provincial delineations.

　　这个行业面临的一个问题是，中国的个体货车司机如此之多，以至于所有人都觉得，自己哪怕是稍稍提价，都会丢掉生意。这种供应过剩也让货运公司在决定给谁派活时，特别看重派系和同乡关系。在上海港，就有数家货运集团只招收同省人。

　　Truckers are not the only ones to be hit by high oil prices, part of the reason authorities were so swift to stifle any news of the strikes and violence in Shanghai. Taxi drivers have also been complaining loudly. Two weeks ago Beijing doubled the fuel surcharge for long trips in a bid to appease taxi drivers’ complaints.

　　货车司机并非唯一受高油价冲击的群体，这也部分解释了当局为何如此迅速封锁了有关上海罢工和暴力事件的消息。出租车司机也满腹怨言。两周前，北京将长距离车程的燃油附加费上调一倍，以平息出租车司机的怨言。

　　Chinese taxi drivers have historically been relatively quick to organise. In late 2008 a strike by taxi drivers in Chongqing inspired similar actions in Guangzhou, Sanya, Shantou and other cities. Earlier this year, cabbies in Zhengzhou briefly went on strike to protest against a new overtime rule.

　　中国的出租车司机历来都能够较快组织起来。2008年底，重庆出租车司机罢工，引发广州、三亚、汕头等多个城市的类似行动。今年早些时候，郑州司机进行了短暂罢工，抗议该市新出台的加班规定。

　　"Besides manufacturing and industrial workers, taxi drivers are the ones who have the biggest record of having gone on strike in recent years," says Andrew Gilholm, Shanghai-based analyst at Control Risks, a consultancy. “Often it has been about fees as much as fuel prices. But because of their unusual position in terms of being able to co- ordinate and disrupt, they are a bit of a special case.”

　　“除了制造业和产业工人，出租车司机是近年来罢工次数最多的群体，”咨询机构“控制风险”(Control Risks)驻上海分析师安德鲁?吉洛姆(Andrew Gilholm)说。“他们罢工往往是因为收费或燃油价格。但由于他们在协作能力强、可以打乱秩序，这个群体有些特殊。”