TRUCKERS' PORT DELAYS * USA - Frustrating. Endure shrinked hours during recession

In McIntyre's line of work, time is money. He gets paid based on the number of loads he picks up or delivers each day, and his paycheck will shrink with every missed assignment

New Orleans,LA,USA -The Times-Picayune, by Jen DeGregorio -July 26, 2009: -- Edward McIntyre woke before dawn Tuesday, ready for a routine day of work behind the wheel... As McIntyre passed through the port gate toward the Mississippi River, he learned that work would have to wait. Ports America, one of two companies that run the port's container terminal, slashed its operating hours to deal with the recession. The company shaved five hours off of its 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule on Tuesdays and Fridays, staying closed until noon on those days... In McIntyre's line of work, time is money. He gets paid based on the number of loads he picks up or delivers each day, and his paycheck will shrink with every missed assignment... The narrower hours at Napoleon Avenue have proved a drain on Wells' finances. He counts on moving about eight or nine containers during a typical day, driving back and forth between the port and various industrial yards in the New Orleans area. With the new hours, though, Wells is down to about four loads per day, cutting his paycheck in half... Truck drivers -- of which there are more than 5,000 in the New Orleans area -- are the latest victims of a national recession that has put unemployment at a staggering 9.5 percent. In Louisiana, unemployment stands at 6.8 percent... (Photo by ELIOT KAMENITZ/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE - Robert Wells Jr., a trucker, waits Tuesday at the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal. Wells said that with the port's narrower hours, drivers line up to be the first served when the terminals open. Just a few months ago, Wells said he could get his truck in and out of Napoleon Avenue within 45 minutes, a task that now takes hours)