The indefinite strike is the biggest since President Tabare Vazquez took office last year. Teachers and bus drivers who back the government plan to fund bus ticket discounts with the fuel price increases staged a separate five-hour walkout.
Businesses in the small South American country said they feared shops could run low of supplies if the truck drivers' strike continued for more than a few days.
Strike organisers said 10,000 drivers had joined the action, which started on Monday.
Vazquez's government, which has criticised the strike and said it would try to resolve the conflict through talks, proposes raising the price of a liter (0.26 gallons) of diesel by 1.2 Uruguayan pesos.
Diesel currently costs 21.9 pesos (about 90 US cents) per liter in Uruguay.
($1 = 23.8 pesos).

Copyright Reuters, 2006