Decline in UK road-borne exports also hitting imports

RHA says volumes remain down 40% compared with normal levels, due to obstacles at the border that ‘are largely due to the controls being enforced too vigorously on the EU side’.

A lack of demand for road freight capacity from the UK, as a result of export volumes to the EU falling well short of normal levels almost one month after the end of the Brexit transition period, is making it difficult for importers to find trucks willing to make the journey to Britain because it is less financially worthwhile for hauliers than was previously the case, according to the Road Haulage Association (RHA).

The trade body noted that most of the trucks transporting goods to the UK are not British-registered and that there has been a marked reduction in the number of hauliers who are ready to commit vehicles to crossing the Channel. It said this was likely due to concerns about being stuck at the ports, not having customs paperwork in order and the procedures for testing drivers for COVID.

It estimates that due to weaker demand currently for ‘export’ capacity, around 40% of trucks are returning to the Continent empty.

“This is the continuing and ongoing problem we are faced with at the moment. What is surprising is that we keep on expecting (road freight) volumes to go up as traders release trucks which they’ve kept out of harm’s way, so to speak, in the early weeks post-Brexit, but this is not happening, and it’s puzzling,” the RHA’s director of policy, Rod McKenzie, told Lloyd’s Loading List in an interview.

“I can only assume that they (the traders) are hoping for things to get better in some way through government intervention of some form of customs liberalization, and that their job will be easier and they can start trading again. But it’s a very curious situation.”

McKenzie said that the obstacles at the border are largely due to the controls being enforced too vigorously on the EU side.

“The UK can’t step in unilaterally. It requires effort from both sides.  One recent incident illustrates very well how rigid enforcement at the border is hurting not just the ‘difficult’ Brits but the EU as well. The French love their Scottish shellfish, but one lorryload was destroyed last week because it was delayed for five days due to customs clearance issues.

“A quick solution for British-origin food products would be for the UK and the EU to agree that some of these checks and paperwork are being over-enforced. It is simply not required.

“We’ve been trading with the EU for the past 40 years and our food products are not dodgy. The EU rules for meat products are designed to protect against poor quality and unsafe food coming into the bloc which is a noble and perfectly worthwhile goal.

“But it doesn’t mean that suddenly Scottish beef or Scottish prawns are dodgy in any way. So why are we spending so much time poring over forms for that sort of thing when actually common sense tells you that shipments should be waived through?

“This is basically what the UK authorities have said to EU exporters for the first half of this year in not enforcing the border.”

McKenzie concluded: “What we have with the new post-Brexit trading regime is structural complexity that doesn’t need to be there. I’ve said for some time that the situation will get worse before it gets better. How it gets better, God only knows. It’ll either get better, ultimately as people get used to the form filling or, we hope, governments are sensible and tweak the new system. There are only tweaks that are required to make this a commonsense arrangement.”

Source: Lloyd´s