UK freight firms urged to engage with Brexit ‘Information and Advice Sites’

With less than four weeks to go until the Britain’s exit from EU customs and trade rules, Logistics UK is urging businesses to be ‘as ready as they can’.

With no UK-EU trade deal in sight and less than four weeks to go until the UK’s exit from EU customs, border and trade rules, freight transport association Logistics UK is urging businesses to engage with the UK’s new network ‘Information and Advice Sites’ so they can be “as ready as they can” for the end of the Transition Period.

Amid continuing dire warnings and fears expressed by freight transport representatives involved in UK-EU trade about likely border chaos and hold-ups when the new – as yet unknown – UK-EU trading relationship enters force, David Wells, Chief Executive of Logistics UK, met last week with the UK’s EU Transition Minister, Rachel Maclean, to discuss the upcoming end of the Brexit transition period. Their meeting took place at the new Information and Advice Site at Hopwood Service Station – one of 45 such sites located at motorway service stations and truck stops across the UK that are designed to offer drivers of freight vehicles in-person advice on Brexit preparations.

“With four weeks to go until the end of the Transition Period, this meeting was a good opportunity to engage with the Minister again and discuss our concerns around government and industry preparedness,” said David Wells. “Deal or no deal, any future trading arrangement with the EU will require much preparation by freight companies and their customers.

“Logistics UK is urging businesses involved in UK-EU supply chains to engage with the Information and Advice Sites to help them be as ready as they can. Information, including the Hauliers’ Handbook, is now available in many languages, so it is vital that each company in any supply chain has accessed the available information.”

UK government ministers were accused last week by members of parliament (MPs) of presiding over a potential “catastrophe” as it became clear to them that not enough customs agents had been trained to handle a surge in demand caused by the end of the UK’s Brexit transition period from EU rules from 1 January.

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for post-Brexit preparations, said that there had been a fourfold increase in private-sector capacity to process the customs forms that companies exporting to the EU must fill in after the end of the year. However, official figures suggest that this could result in up to 100 million consignments being sent across the border without the right paperwork or left waiting for the correct clearance, according to The Times.

MPs from the UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee – which holds government officials to account for the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of public spending – warned that there was a “risk of serious disruption and delay” at Channel crossings at the end of this month even if a deal is struck with the EU. The committee accused ministers of “taking limited responsibility” for national readiness, highlighting a recent government survey that found 36% of small and medium-sized firms expected the transition period to be extended – despite the government spending £4.4 billion on preparing for EU withdrawal.

Other studies in recent months have indicated that a significant number of UK-EU traders remain unprepared or unprepared for the GB-EU new trading environment next year.

In an interview with Lloyd’s Loading List last month, UK customs technology specialist Peter MacSwiney, chairman of UK customs clearance solutions provider Agency Sector Management (ASM) and co-chair of the UK’s Joint Customs Consultative Committee (JCCC) Customs Brexit Group (CBG) said he believed the freight forwarders form its customer base are up to the task of an expanded customs brokerage role, although that doesn’t mean those freight forwarders have unlimited capacity to take on new customers.

“Most of our users seem to be comfortable with the prospect of higher levels of business with existing customers as a result of the introduction of customs declarations,” he noted. “Where there is a degree of anxiety on their part is in taking on business from unknown customers whose preparations for the post-transitional period may be inadequate.

“We have a situation where a good many trading companies, even at this late stage, continue to underestimate the changes that lie ahead and are unclear on who has responsibility for what – be it the payment of duties and VAT. It’s an absolute minefield and I think some forwarders are worried they could be left carrying the can if compliance is not respected.”

Border operations system

Concern among MPs last week comes as the UK government said it was setting up a border operations system to help identify and manage blockages and backlogs of vehicles when the UK leaves the single market and customs union on 1 January.  The system will reportedly use software provided by controversial firm Palantir.

Meanwhile, the UK government has confirmed that backlogs of lorries on the UK side in the event of post-Brexit delays at the cross-Channel ports will be parked at the disused Manston airport. The move follows warnings that potential queues of 7,000 trucks that could clog up roads around ports.

The Department for Transport said a deal has been signed to use Manston as a lorry facility after the end of the transition period on 31 December, and the proposal that the M26 motorway could ack as a lorry holding area has been discounted, the BBC reported.

The government has also bought a 27-acre site near Ashford to provide a holding space for about 2,000 lorries. It plans to deal with disruption at the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone include the implementation of a contraflow on the M20.

When so-called ‘Operation Brock’, is in place, a system to manage road freight backlogs in the event of delays at the cross-Channel ports, one carriageway of the M20 in Kent is used only by HGVs heading to cross-Channel ports, with all other traffic restricted to a contraflow system on the opposite carriageway.

Source: Lloyd´s