CHICAGO - Illinois truckers say top state officials bamboozled them and the public when they pushed through higher tolls on state roads, including tolls for motorcoaches.

The Illinois Trucking Association is so outraged that it's urging members to boycott state toll highways. And, it wants truckers to disrupt traffic by reducing speeds to legal minimums, especially during periods of congestion, and shut down their rigs when they approach a toll booth "while searching for the coins required to pay these outrageous tolls."

The trucking association says the governor of Illinois and the executive director of the Illinois Tollway Authority never indicated that a number of the tolls that went into effective Jan. 1 would far exceed the "typical" rates that were announced last fall. (See Oct. 15 issue of Bus & Motorcoach News.)

When new tolls were announced Sept. 30, it was stated that typical rates for 40- and 45-foot, three-axle coaches would go to $2.25, from the 75 cents to $1 charged at most Illinois toll plazas.

It also was announced that typical tolls for two-axle coaches would go to $1.50, from the then-current 50 cents required at most toll plazas.

Truckers were hit with the biggest toll increase. Under the plan, rates for over-the-road tractor-trailers with five or more axles would jump to $4 at the "typical" toll plaza on Jan. 1, from 2004 rates of $1.25-$1.50.

But lurking among the higher rates posted on the toll authority Web site are nearly a dozen that far exceed the $2.25 "typical" toll for large motorcoaches. For example, the new toll for the Tri-State Tollway-Interstate 294-94 to Waukegan is $4.25, and the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway-Interstate 88 to the DeKalb Mainline or Dixon Mainline toll plazas is $5.35.

For two-axle coaches, the rates for those same examples are $2.85 and $3.60, or more than double the "typical" rates announced Sept. 30.

The Illinois truckers are particularly upset because they must now pay rates as high as $9.50, not the "typical" $4 they say they were promised last fall.

"The governor and the Illinois Tollways Authority which he controls are hell bent on destroying our industry," the trucking association said in a statement. "(Gov. Rod) Blagojevich and Tollway Director (Jack) Hartman have misled the Illinois Trucking Association and the public as well. ... We should have realized these men cannot be trusted."

The association also accuses Blagojevich and the tollway authority of pulling a fast one by slipping in a new rate for automobiles that are towing one- or-two axle trailers. Such autos are now classified as medium-size trucks and pay between $2.25 and $4.25 per toll. Autos without trailers pay 30 cents to $1.90. "At what town meeting was that brought up?" the association asks.

So, what does the association say its members should do? "DIVERT. Do not use the tollway(s). Use alternative routes."

It also advocates disrupting traffic by reducing speeds, and it wants members to use manual lanes at toll booths - since there is "no advantage to using the I-Pass" - and be very deliberate about paying.

Plus, it urges members to write to the governor and other politicians and "let them know we will not be kicked around any longer. Let them know they can be replaced come election time. Give em hell."