With their lorry horns blaring and carrying placards, the hauliers lined up along a specially-closed section of the A40 close to the heart of the capital.

First to arrive was Jose Girvan, 36, from Ruislip, Middlesex, who is a driver with transport services company KJS based at Iver, Buckinghamshire.

Talking alongside his cab as motorists passing by hooted their support, Mr Girvan said: "Prices are just getting higher and higher and higher. The Government has got to cut the duty on diesel, they really must do something."

Organisers were hoping that as many as 600 to 1,000 lorries would eventually line up along the A40 which was closed on the eastbound carriageway between White City and Edgware Road in west London.

The hauliers are due to stage a rally at Marble Arch and then later a delegation was handing a letter in at 10 Downing Street.

Earlier, a convoy of around 90 hauliers had set off from the Medway Services on the A2 in Kent.

It was thought that about 150 lorries travelled in from Essex and about 100 from Bedfordshire, with truckers also expected from many other parts of the country.