Any hopes of public support that the tanker drivers may have harboured would have quickly shattered yesterday. Even as the picket lines were still forming, the backlash, led by frustrated motorists and low-paid workers, gathered steam.

Phone-ins and internet message boards were inundated with criticism of the drivers. Many condemned what they perceived as greedy demands for a 13 per cent pay rise at a time when unemployment is rising and public sector workers are having to make do with small pay rises. Richard Smith, from Bristol, writing on Times Online, was not alone in thinking that the drivers' average pay was already generous: “£32,000 basic a year! For driving a truck from A to B, they should think themselves lucky!”

Referring to one of the companies in dispute with the drivers, Gillian Davis, from Glasgow, posted this on the Sky News site: “My husband is an HGV driver and earns nowhere near the amount that these drivers are on. I will forward [his] CV to Hoyer today.”

Many made comparisons between the drivers' pay demands and the wages of public sector workers, particularly the emergency services and, in a bloody week for Britain's Armed Forces, soldiers.

Jack, from Birmingham, writing on the BBC News website, said: “Lost my left leg patrolling just outside Basra last year. Salary = £17,000.”

John Mills, from Salisbury, said on the same site: “I am a civil servant on under £20K per year and have to accept around 2 per cent pay rises. I am responsible for decisions which could ultimately kill people if I get them wrong. Lots of REAL key people (teachers, nurses, council workers, dustmen, etc) are on much less than these drivers are asking for.”

For many the strike was yet another unwelcome problem to deal with. Bob Williams, from Bath, said on Times Online: “To make motorists suffer fuel shortages at a time of record fuel prices and taxes is selfish.”

The strikers did have their defenders, however, who pointed out the dangers of driving vehicles carrying large quantities of fuel and reflecting on the profits made by Shell and other oil companies: “They deserve every penny they get and more,” wrote Peter Johnston on BBC News. “Try driving long distances with tonnes of flammable liquid less than 6ft away just so people can fill up their cars close to home.”

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