CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. -- Soaring fuel prices are forcing many truckers to think about turning in their keys.

"If they keep going up, this is something I'm going to get out of," said Doug West of Lancaster County.

West used to drive cross-country hauling loads. Now, record diesel prices are keeping him closer to home.

"It costs me 70 cents a mile to run my truck," he said. "Sometimes I get to the end of the week, and I say, ‘I've about run my truck all week for nothing.’"

In the last two months, diesel prices have climbed nearly 50 cents a gallon. When it costs more than $800 for a fill up, that's almost unbearable for many independent drivers who pay for their own fuel.

Diesel was $4.25 a gallon on Monday in Chester County.

Trucker James Deese also once hauled steel out west. Now he drives a route in South Carolina from Chesterfield County to Chester County.

"Fuel prices are the cheapest in the country in South Carolina," Deese said.

He flies a banner off the back of his truck in protest of high fuel prices. He said he's also changed the way he drives to save money.

"I've slowed down a whole lot. Slowing down conserves fuel. I don't idle either," he said.

Deese said idling at truck stops sucks up a gallon of fuel an hour.

"I put fans in, so I run my fans to stay cool," he said.

Sometimes Deese pays for a motel room rather than spend his money for diesel fuel.

Both Deese and West said they don't go home as much because it costs too much to drive an empty truck with no cargo.

Another trucker, Bill Shilling, is distributing flyers at South Carolina truck stops, hoping to organize a protest rally in Columbia. He wants 100 truckers to swarm the state capitol to be heard about the rising prices.

“We've got 43 truckers signed up so far," Shilling said. "We're not trying to inconvenience anyone with our protest, but we've got to stand up. My problems are your problems too.”

Later this year, Shilling hopes 1,000 truckers will descend on Washington, D.C., for a major protest there.

Truckers said higher costs for food and other products are already being passed on to consumers. They said they worry those costs will only keep rising.