Port Metro Vancouver truckers stop working over wait times

Some 1,200 Metro Vancouver container truckers are parking their rigs Wednesday morning, in protest of long wait times at port facilities.

The non-unionized container truckers will begin the job action with a morning rally off Highway 91. They say they have had it with having to wait several hours to pick up cargo at Vancouver shipping terminals.

"They don't honour their appointments. We're sitting out on their property two, three hours. The employer's done their part. They got the work, they got us the container, they got us the appointment to be somewhere with that container, but it's the receiving end of it that's not prepared to take it on," said Manny Dosange with the United Truckers Association.

The truckers, who are paid by the load, are demanding that the port streamline its operations or pay the truckers an hourly wage while they wait.

"Because of these delays, we're lucky if we get two moves in a day, which would give us a couple hundred bucks. And out of that, you've got to take diesel out, you've got to take all your costs out, and then you've got to try running your household on that. It's not happening and resources are totally dried up," said Dosange.

The truckers held a similar rally last October outside Canada Place in downtown Vancouver.

• United truckers protest in downtown Vancouver

Port Metro Vancouver told CBC News that the dispute is a matter between the truckers and their employer, and insisted business will carry on as usual.