"It's kosher. I've checked their documents. These are the nervous drivers and we're not stopping them from going out," says Mr Stephen Dukes, one of the self-appointed co-ordinators of the fuel protest outside the Shell Stanlow oil refinery near Ellesmere Port.
All day deliveries of fuel for emergency services and for essential supplies such as nurses and doctors are allowed out. The drill is the same every time: The tankers move into position near the gates, the police line moves across the road and the protesters clap and cheer as the tankers leave under police guard.
In the north-west of England, Shell normally sends out up to 600 units or tankers of fuel every 24 hours. Yesterday about 45 tankers left the plant and three tankers from independent firms were turned away at the gates. A protester says he isn't bothered about emergency supplies leaving the plant: "I assure you it's like piddling in the sea to drown the Chinese".
Mr Mark Francis is a north Wales haulier and another co-ordinator of the protest. He regularly addresses the 200 protesters from the top of a yellow digger parked on the side of the road. He assures them the protest is working with the help of the Shell drivers inside the plant. He insists the drivers are not being intimidated and have agreed only to supply emergency fuel: "They're saving our bacon. Please don't intimidate them or show any aggression to the police. We're embarrassing our Prime Minister, we're embarrassing our government, but they're not getting us out." The protesters cheer.
But it's not just the price of fuel that these protesters are angry about. They complain about foreign truck drivers filling up on cheap fuel in Europe and undercutting British workers, the British government's attitude towards hunting and sheep farmers, pollution and Tony Blair's "little Hitler" style of power.
As the protesters stand around in groups or sit on hay bales at the side of the road, Ron Aylward, a taxi driver from Ellesmere Port, says he has left his wife at home to join the protest. His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer on Monday, but Ron says she has told him to join the farmers and road hauliers in their protests against the high fuel price. "Labour promised us so much and has given us sod all," says Ron. "I've voted Labour all my life, but they've lost my vote over this. I'm going down to sign on the dole on Monday and so will a lot of these lads. There you are, Mr Blair, there's another statistic for you".
On the front line it is all about rumour. Protesters cast doubt on reports that the ban on using red diesel on the roads has been lifted indefinitely. And when Brynle Williams, a farmer from Cheshire and one-time leader of the protest, declared the battle was lost yesterday, the mood was low. He returned to his home but a show of hands meant the protest continued. But later it emerged that Brynle had not abandoned the protest because he had lost faith but because his family had received anonymous death threats.