January trade lull gives ports vital Brexit breathing space for customs changes
ISOLATED INSTANCES OF IT BACKLOGS, CONTAINERS NOT MAKING VESSELS AND OTHERS BEING TIED TO THE PORTS AS CLEARANCES ARE AWAITED
VITAL Brexit breathing space has been brought about by a January lull in cargo as freight firms come to terms with the new era of increased administration. Confusion over customs documentation has been outlined, but there has been no repeat of the port congestion that saw vessels held in the Humber ahead of Britain stepping out of the EU - or queues of lorries around the port estate. DFDS - the largest roll-on roll-off operator at the country’s largest port - said the drop-off in movements was helping those at the coalface get to grips with the new customs documentation at the Europe-facing Immingham operation. Andrew Byrne, managing director, said: “Volume-wise it has been quiet because of the amount of cargo we saw in December.
“We have seen a lot more units being exported, as the balance has levelled up, a lot of units now delivered going back empty or with new consignments. The congestion that we saw has gone.
“We are seeing a few issues with customs systems, with customers and customers’ customers, be it getting used to new procedures or additional manual checks, but because volumes are lower it is not impacting on the traffic flow.
“If we were as busy as December and having discrepancies it would, but we’re not, so we’re just ironing out the crease and helping customers. Every day is getting lighter and in a couple of weeks we will be in a position where it is routine.”
There have been isolated cases of drivers arriving to collect cargo that has yet to be cleared, containers not hitting sailings due to the same, chiefly on hazardous goods, and early HMRC IT system backlogs.
“We have seen a few truck drivers hanging around frustrated, as previously they could move as soon as they were on the quay.
“We have also had some units delivered to the quay and not get
customs cleared and not get on the ship.
“It is 29 years since we have had to do this. We’ve built an entire operation around being frictionless, so it
adds another layer of complexity.”
While document checks came in as the 11pm Brussels “release” came on New Year’s Eve, physical checks won’t be brought in until July 1. Almost £50 million is being spent on new border control posts in the Humber to be up and running for then, with new facilities at Hull, Immingham and Killingholme.
Pauline Wade, director of international trade at Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce, is heading up a Global Humber Help Desk in collaboration with Humber LEP.
She said: “We have been busy. There is still quite a lot of confusion but businesses are turning to us for advice.
“In the main the big companies are fairly well organised, though we are getting some enquiries, particularly in the food industry. It is the smaller businesses, the SMEs, who are confused with regard to the documentation required for both import and export - issues to do with the agreement.”
One North East Lincolnshirebased freight forwarder based close to the port said he was a little worried about how unprepared many clients were. “The biggest hurdle is getting people’s heads around the fact that for imports and exports to the EU there are now customs clearance,” he said. “Previously you could ship out and not worry about it.
“If you manufacture in the UK and only send to Holland and Germany it is quite a big step, but if you deal with China or Australia is it more of the same. Now whether it is Dublin or Dubai the same applies. Shippers and manufacturers that were already globally active are more switched on and used to it.