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This case is part of the Trade and Industry Department SME case series funded by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Trade and Industry Department SME Development Fund. In November 2000, the eight-member Hong Kong mid-stream Operators Association (HKMOA), which controlled 90 per cent of the mid-stream container handling business in Hong Kong, announced that they would charge shippers an extra fee. When the shippers refused to pay that fee, the container truck drivers, who delivered the containers to the mid-stream depots, were asked to pay it for the shippers first and then claim it back from the shippers. The truckers promptly refused. A series of industrial actions ensued, and the government, shippers, and liners were involved in subsequent negotiations. The rounds of tussles between the HKMOA and the truckers lasted into June 2001. Eventually, the HKMOA won, the truckers had to pay the mid-stream fee, and in many cases could not recoup it from the shippers. Why did the truckers become the victims of the HKMOA? Why could the mid-stream operators win? What could public policy makers do to prevent similar disputes from happening again? What could the truck drivers, who in many cases were self-employed, do to protect themselves from more new charges in the future?