Maher suspends Saturday hours

Maher suspends Saturday hours Maher Terminals, the Port of New York and New Jersey's busiest shipping terminal, has suspended Saturday gate hours after low use.
   “This decision is based solely on the lack of participation and activity,” Maher said. During the past five weeks the average number of deliveries to the terminal was 156 per Saturday.
   That compares to 2,600 truck visits in a typical eight-hour period during the week and as many as 4,500 in a day, since Maher is open from 6 a.m.-10 p.m. weekdays.
   “It is not practical to sustain the Saturday gates with this level of activity,” the company said.
   Earlier this year, the company said it costs $1 million a year to run gates on Saturday
   Maher said that it would continue to offer what it said are the longest hours at the port on weekdays. It added that “if business trends warrant, Maher will reconsider the possibility of reinstating the Saturday gates at some point in the future.”
   When Maher first announced this summer that it was going to suspend Saturday hours it caused hue and cry among some truckers. So the company relented and said it would give users a second chance, offering Saturday hours for another five weeks, with the goal of at least 500 import boxes per Saturday. But the traffic never materialized.