LORRY drivers and haulage firms fear major delays at Southampton docks have cost them vital cash at their busiest time of the year.

Hundreds of drivers have been stranded in long queues to pick up containers this week, which mean they are missing out on business.

Port bosses say heavy fog forced operations to be suspended earlier this week, and problems with truckers abandoning their bookings have caused a backlog.

Drivers claim they have been left sitting still for up to seven hours waiting to pick up loads from the city port this week.

Yesterday morning, lorries were queued out of the docks and along First Avenue all the way to the Millbrook Roundabout because of the wait to receive a time slot.

Driver Jason Coleman, from Eastleigh, said he has experienced frustrating delays, but colleagues had fared worse.

He said: “I’ve spoken to someone who arrived at 4am but only got his paperwork at 9am, and then had to wait on the quay to actually load up.

“Normally it takes about 30 minutes. At worst it’s an hour during busy times. We know there were fog problems which meant they closed the docks for safety, but even before that there were major problems – there were people waiting seven hours on Monday.

“It’s catastrophic for the businesses. This is our busiest time of the year coming up to Christmas, and we’re losing money hand over fist having us sit around for hours and hours, because it means we’re not out delivering.

“This morning in just one of the three areas there were 147 trucks waiting to get on to the quay and another 40 or 50 on that area waiting to get their containers.”

A spokesman for DP World Southampton, which operates the docks, said messages were sent to haulage firms advising of the problems caused by the fog, which made operating machinery too dangerous.

They said: “Fog on Monday night and Tuesday morning did impact on the terminal operations on Tuesday.

“However due to numerous lorry drivers abandoning their booking at the terminal, after checking in and without informing us, this has led to a number of process and systems issues today which have continued to impact on our landside services.

“We have implemented a number of contingency procedures to assist with clearing the backlog and expected this to be completed later today.”