Postal services firm DHL hires more staff for Brexit
POSTAL SERVICES giant Deutsche Post DHL has hired hundreds of workers to deal with new customs procedures expected to be imposed after March 29, when Britain is due to leave the European Union, according to an executive.
Europe is Britain’s largest trading partner. New tariffs and goods clearance procedures could be introduced unless the UK secures a deal on future relations with the 28-member bloc before it leaves.
John Pearson, chief executive of the DHL Express subsidiary, said his company “began hiring in earnest about three months ago” and had been recruiting about 50 new workers a week.
“These are people on the ground in the hubs. They are coming onto our payroll sitting in a hub facility probably processing customs paperwork to make sure that the goods are cleared quickly,” he said.
Mr Pearson added: “We are recognising that if, in a no-deal scenario customs will be the be all and end all, then we don’t want to be caught short.”
Mr Pearson, who took up the job in January, did not specify
how Brexit would directly impact the company’s business, but said “if there was a no deal suddenly announced on March 29 we would be more ready than anyone else”.
DHL, one of Europe’s largest parcel deliverers with major operations across the EU and Britain, transports goods by air and road between the two trading regions.
Last month, Adam Johnson, director of Leeds-based Tudor International Freight, called on the Government to ask the EU to extend the Article 50 period in the interests of Yorkshire’s traders with the bloc, after the Prime Minister’s deal was voted down in parliament.
He said extending the Article 50 period was better for Yorkshire’s businesses trading with the EU than the current legal position, under which the UK will automatically leave on March 29.
Mr Johnson added: “For a withdrawal agreement to be put fully in place, not only do changes to the current draft have to be negotiated with the EU and the revised text approved by Parliament but about 800 pieces of other legislation will be necessary to ensure it’s legally executed too.
“And those are just the key domestic requirements – there are other demands, such as ratification by the EU, as well – so it’s now very difficult to see all this happening by the current deadline.”
It’s now very difficult to see all this happening by the current deadline. Adam Johnson, director of Tudor International Freight