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When log-haul contractor Levi Brownscombe left his home in Hixon, 60 kilometres south of Prince George, at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, there were already logging trucks on the road driving south to join the protest convoy headed to Downtown Vancouver.

More trucks joined at Quesnel, Williams Lake and other towns along Highway 97 to a rally point in Merritt, with supporters showing up at the side of the road holding ‘We Love Loggers’ signs to cheer them on.

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“We’re talking four in the morning, and they got up to wave us on, and it hasn’t stopped,” Brownscombe said, “We feel supported.”

Brownscombe, 24, is an independent contractor with two trucks and is a five-year veteran of the industry. He hasn’t lost work yet, but knows many other drivers who have run out of contracting jobs during what has become a long summer of production curtailments and closures at more than 20 Interior sawmills. He is nervous enough about the future to take part in the effort.

Some 3,000 mill workers have lost work in direct employment this summer, 500 permanently and another 750 indefinitely, according to the province’s last count. Indirect job losses among contractors and logging-truck drivers haven’t been tallied.