The Liberty Fuel Travel Center is a popular stop on Interstate 10 for truckers who fill their tanks up with diesel fuel on their way to Los Angeles. (Rene Gutel)

Liberty Fuel Travel Center is an independent truck stop off Interstate 10 on the road from Phoenix to Los Angeles. They have bays of gas pumps in front for the cars, and diesel stations in the back for the trucks. In between is a large convenience store, with soda, coffee and snacks for sale.

Truck driver Jesse Serna walks inside, opens his wallet and peels off 15 twenty dollar bills.

That’s all he has right now to get load of scrap metal to Southern California.  

JESSE SERNA: “Three hundred on 19.”

Serna goes outside and over to his massive white truck and starts to pump.

The price of diesel fuel has skyrocketed here in the United States this year, leaving many drivers in the lurch. Serna has to pay all his fuel costs up front, and then it can take up to a month for him to get reimbursed. And he says work is harder to come by.

SERNA: “I’ve personally had 15 friends give up their truck. I’ve had friends call me crying if they could borrow money, but of course they couldn’t because I’m in the same boat myself. I got a friend who called the other day said he come home to no lights, no water, and it’s very horrible. And all we’re doing is trying to work and survive.”

He says he’s voting for Democrat Barack Obama because he thinks the country needs to change direction. But at the same time, Serna says he doesn’t feel like either presidential candidate is speaking to him.

SERNA: “I wish they would mention something about truckers. What they would do to help us because otherwise, honest to God, We’re here by ourselves. By ourselves.”

The diesel pumps clicks off.

And with that, he gets in his cab. And pulls off.

Inside the store, manager Simona Gomez stands behind the counter. When the truckers grumble about the high prices, she’s on the front lines.

SIMONA GOMEZ: “They do complain a lot that everything is, expensive. Not only is the gas going up, but there is also products in the store, because of the fuel prices, it’s affecting that as well.”

Gomez can empathize. She’s a mother of two and says between driving her kids to and from school, and going to work, she spends four hundred dollars a month for gas.

GOMEZ: “It feels like another car payment, actually. It’s quite a bit.”

But she says she tries to keep talk of politics to a minimum at the check-out counter.

And she hasn’t decided who to support in November.

GOMEZ: “I’m kind of wishy-washy. I don’t know… I really don’t” (fade ambi to black)

Energy’s a hot topic this election. Republican John McCain’s plan calls for expanded drilling for oil and creating more nuclear energy plants. Democrat Barack Obama favors greener alternatives, including promoting the use of plug-in hybrid cars.

Out back at the truck stop, driver Larry Melvin pulls in. He says he spends three thousand dollars a week on fuel and as an independent contractor. He has to wait a month to be reimbursed.

He’s been following the election, but isn’t impressed with either candidate.

LARRY MELVIN: They’re lost in their own actions. They don’t care what’s going on with the people, they’re out for their own gain.

He says the real issues are being ignored.

MELVIN: Well, we need to get something with health care. Canada does it, Mexico does it. There’s got to be some reason these other countries can do it, why can’t we?

Melvin headed back to his truck and I’m left standing in the sun, watching the truckers pour hundreds of dollars of diesel fuel into their tanks.

For World Radio Switzerland, I’m Rene Gutel in Phoenix, Arizona.  

Rene Gutel is an award-winning public radio journalist based in Phoenix, Arizona. Rene has worked at radio stations in California, Alaska, Pennsylvania and Arizona. She’s covered a bit of everything: from serial killers stalking the Phoenix streets, to the build-up of National Guard troops along the US Mexico border, to the emerging popularity of pet-only funeral homes. Her in-depth feature reporting is regularly heard on US public radio programs including Weekend America, NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Day to Day, PRI’s The World and the Splendid Table.