International Transport Union says EU hauliers and businesses are unprepared for checks and paperwork which will be required to bring goods from the EU into the UK from 1 April. Imports of fresh produce to the UK from the EU face serious disruption next month when new border controls are introduced, according to a senior executive at the International Transport Union (IRU), reflecting concerns expressed by others in the freight sector.
Matthias Maedge, director of Advocacy at the Geneva-based road haulage industry body, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme last week that there could be chaos when new changes to import procedures come into effect on 1 April 2021 as a result of the UK government failing to properly warn and advise EU hauliers and businesses about the new checks and paperwork which will be required to bring goods from the EU into the UK.
“We are potentially facing chaos at the border and for moving goods into the UK, especially of fresh produce, Maedge said. “We have already experienced this on the EU side with UK hauliers telling us that they are only exporting 20% of what they used to do – because it takes up to five days of bureaucracy and paperwork in order to get something into the EU. And it also takes six to eight hours longer to (transport) goods to the point of destination.
“The UK government doesn’t realise that they are facing a disaster because the UK is such a tiny exporter but they are such a huge importer.”
Some estimates suggest the UK imports 32% of its fruit and 80% of its vegetables from the EU.
Maedge’s prediction of import chaos at the UK border from the beginning of next month is not lost on the Road Haulage Association (RHA), whose director of policy, Rod McKenzie, told Lloyd’s Loading List in an interview: “The big worry now are the two deadlines we’ve got ahead of us, one in April, and the other in July. Next month sees the start of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) checks on incoming shipments to the UK which we think will create extra friction and problems. And obviously, in July, when all the (EU) imports to the UK are subject to checks, that will be difficult. We’re very worried about that.”
The Newsnight report also highlighted the concern expressed by some UK importers of fresh produce that additional red tape will put off EU exporters from trading with them.
Simon Lane, managing director of Fruco, commented: “I can certainly think of a number of our European partners who have been reluctant to do it (continue to do business with us) but because we have been with them for so many years have done. These people can sell their products in other places apart from the UK and it really is a question of us calling in our long-standing relationships to keep sourcing from them.”
The BBC report quoted a government spokesperson who said: “We are taking a pragmatic approach, introducing import controls in stages to ensure traders and hauliers have sufficient time to make the necessary changes as set out in our Operating Border Model published last July. The latest available data shows that overall freight volumes between the UK and the EU are at normal levels. It is entirely normal for empty trucks to travel outbound.”
However, analysis by Lloyd’s Loading List of the UK government’s own figures indicate that those UK government statements are misleading, with up to one in five UK road-borne exports still not taking place, as traders continue to struggle with post-Brexit trade complications.
Although government figures indicate that the numbers of GB-EU road freight vehicle movements carried on ro-ro services in February had recovered to almost 99% of their February 2020 levels, many of these vehicles are now running empty. Figures from the UK Cabinet Office also indicate that around 50% of UK outbound lorries were reportedly still running empty on short-straits cross-Channel services in January, compared with an estimated average of 30% of outbound HGVs being empty in normal times.
That indicates that up to 38% of GB outbound HGVs are still running empty. And for total GB-EU ro-ro freight traffic, based on ferry manifest data, the Cabinet Office said empty HGVs represented 23% of total outbound flow in January and February 2020, with that same data source indicating “an increase of around 9-15 percentage points in empty HGVs in January and February 2021, to date”. That indicates that up to 38% of GB outbound HGVs are still running empty – an increase of 65% – a rise of almost two thirds – in the numbers of GB outbound HGVs returning empty to the European mainland.
Conversely, comparing the proportion of vehicles that normal carry loads from GB to the EU, 77% of vehicles, with the current figure, of between 68% and 62% carrying loads, indicates that there could still be a drop of up to almost 20% (19.5%) in the levels of GB-EU road-borne export volumes compared with last year – a decline of up to one in five road freight exports.
Commenting on current truck numbers on UK-EU routes, McKenzie noted: “While giving a snapshot is dangerous because I could well be quoting yesterday’s figures, which are different to today’s, as the situation changes quickly. But I think on balance they are probably somewhere between 80% and 90% of normal. They might be nosing slightly above that on a good day, probably low 80s on a bad day. That sort of figure.”
He also underlined the RHA’s concern about the increase in the number of trucks leaving the UK for the continent empty since 1 January.
“Trucks are going back to the continent about 40% empty and that’s worryingly high. The figure has come down from the 60% that been reported but is still at a significantly high level when you compare it with around 20% pre-Brexit.
“This says that exporters are not exporting at the moment in the way that they were (previously) and we think that’s probably to do more with EU hauliers being been reluctant to go through the faff of doing all the paperwork for the return leg to the EU. They’d rather run into the UK full and run empty from the UK to the EU, because that way they avoid the paperwork and obviously that adds to cost and someone’s going to have to pay for that in the end.”
Source: Lloyd’s
