Truckers in New Brunswick Tuesday started what they hope will be a continent-wide protest against higher fuel prices.

Hundreds of big rigs stopped along the Trans-Canada Highway, at weigh scales and truck stops, and on other routes in the northwestern part of the province.

"The biggest protest appears to be in St. Jacques," said RCMP Sgt. Ron Gosselin. "There are over 150 trucks stopped in that location alone."

Gosselin said other vehicles weren't being blocked from using the highway, but traffic was moving slower than normal.

As vehicles pass the protests, drivers were asked to sign a petition calling for action by the government to help lower gas prices.

The protest was organized by a group calling itself the Truckers and Drivers Association of North America.

The group circulated a fax to trucking groups last week to launch a three-day protest across Canada, the United States and Mexico, starting Tuesday.

"We have no knowledge of who they are and who they represent, and we have no relationship to that organization in any way, shape, or form," said Ralph Boyd, president of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association. "We attempted to do some research on who this organization was, but their flyer does not have any contact names or numbers, does not have a website, nothing that we have been able to locate."

Boyd said many of his members have negotiated new contracts with their clients to take into account elevated fuel prices. But he said many independent truckers have not been able to do the same.

Boyd said he hoped cooler heads would prevail to find a solution, and end the protest before it got out of hand.

He said his association would like to see fuel prices drop, but is in a catch-22 situation when it comes to asking government to lower taxes. "If you look in this particular province and you look at the money they are investing on an annual basis to improve our highway system, it makes it extremely difficult for us to go back in with the other hand and say, lower the taxes," he said. "If the tax dollars are not there you don't get the investment in the infrastructure."