NEW. 🚨🚨🚛🇬🇧🙄🚛🚚🚨🚨 clear signs govt is preparing for coming #brexit turbulence - consulting on new fast-track scheme for food lorries returning to Europe /1

on.ft.com/3bDH1HY
The idea is that 300 lorries a day will be granted 'fast track' permits so they can go back EU and replenish supplies...this is because (see below) the gov fears that potential for disruption is "high" /2 Image
The 8-page consultation document notes this is both because of #Brexit but also because of #COVID19 and continued French insistence on checks on all drivers from UK. /3
Lots arriving in Kent without clear tests SO separately Dept for Transport is considering £150 fines for drivers that don't have clean tests before entering Kent - problem, say hauliers, is that this requires communicating with EU-based drivers (85% from EU) /4
The govt is worried that disruptions will risk the kind of panic-buying we saw in early #COVID19 pandemic /5 Image
They also reveal that before Christmas 25% supermarket deliveries failed; return journey times when from 4 to 8 days...but consumers didn't notice coz supermarkets had so many stockpiles...there will be less flex in system now. /6 Image
Those long return times are the worry because EU drivers won't want to come to UK - so that means finding ways to guarantee they wont get stuck in the Operation Brock queues if they form.

So up to 300/day could get a priority permit if scheme is agreed/7
It will be triggered if a) wait times outside Dover get 8 hours + or b) loads delivered to UK supermarkets falling below 75% of planned expectations for 2 consecutive days.

Lorries will need to show they're coming back within 7 days also /8
Will it work? @RHARodMcKenzie
says much will depend on how it was applied in practice. “Anything that allows food supplies to move faster is a good thing. However, the devil really is in the detail and in the administration of the scheme, if it will work"/9
@RHARodMcKenzie But another haulage insider reckons the bureaucracy of the scheme doesn't recognise how supply chains really work: “This is just embarrassing, and won’t work. Another knee-jerk scheme, designed for a press release," he tells me /10
@RHARodMcKenzie Either way, it's a pretty clear sign that Govt is bracing for more problems as pre-xmas stockpiles run down and traffic volumes across short strait ramp back up to normal. We shall see. ENDS

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More from @pmdfoster

15 Jan
So. The hunt is on in Whitehall for #brexit dividends...to show some clear value in the freedoms given by Brexit.

As we report today one area being looked at is workers' rights...but it is politically difficult territory. /1

ft.com/content/55588f…
No cabinet decisions have been taken, but per sources, three potential areas been identified in Business Dept...

- the 48 Hour Week
- holiday pay/overtime calculations
- new EU rules on reporting hours worked...

All potentially possible post #brexit /2
The government says it has no intention of “lowering” workers’ rights....and notes that UK has actually gold-plated many EU regulations...BUT (think of government saying it won't "lower" animal welfare standards)...the devil will all be in the detail, if and when it comes /3
Read 17 tweets
9 Jan
Everyone is afraid of a #brexit shitstorm next week on the Short Strait...one thing not appreciated fully is that lorries are getting on the boats in Dover (so obtaining barcode via French SI Brexit systèm) and *still* getting pulled/stuck at Calais /1
on.ft.com/3ntFLJG
This is particularly true for those moving agri food products.

The haulier I spoke to yday moved a load of meat on Thurs lunchtime and was still stuck on Fri PM, despite his French customer going to Calais to see what problem was.

This haulier btw is one of best-prepared /2
The point, as @RHARodMcKenzie says is that when @michaelgove says hauliers must “be ready” and “have the right documents” it isn’t that simple.

As I says hauliers/exporters are falling foul of rules they don’t yet appreciate. /3
Read 7 tweets
7 Jan
It's OUT! The first #Brexit Briefing of 2021...which explores how unrealistic some industry expectations are about 'fixes' to the current deal, now the penny is dropping about what it means for supply chains and UK position vis-a-vis EU 1/Thread

on.ft.com/2LdWSSG
So take the example this week, where the @Foodanddrinkfed raised the issue that UK-hubs for food and drink were "unworkable" since goods that came in from the EU were attracting full tariffs when the were spun back into Ireland or other EU members /2

ft.com/content/c068fc…
@Foodanddrinkfed They were backed by other EU associations - and both said they would lobby UK govt and @EU_Commission to 'fix' what they presumed was an "unintended consequence" of the deal....except that both EU officials and UK govt have basically shrugged. The deal is the deal. /3
Read 18 tweets
6 Jan
🚨🚨🚨🇪🇺🇬🇧🚛🚒🇪🇺🇬🇧🚨🚨🚨 serious #brexit story alert - companies now starting to see penny drop on what rules of origin does to supply chains (food for example) but Brussels seems deaf to both EU & U.K. pleading. A bellwether? 😬 Stay with me. 1/
on.ft.com/2JOIlMP
So first the problem: its a tad complicated but basically goods that are imported into UK and then 'hubbed' onwards into Ireland or other parts of the EU are facing full EU tariffs - this is particularly bad for food stuffs, which attract high tariffs. Why is this? /2
It's a function of the Rules of Origin clauses that mean that goods have to sufficiently "originate" in the UK to qualify for zero-tariff entry to EU (and vice versa).

But to qualify, you have to do something to the goods - process them or add value - not just punt them on /3
Read 12 tweets
6 Jan
🚨🚨🚚🚛🚨🚨email from Robert Hardy @RobHardyFR8 whose Customs Clearance Consortium is part of govt’s £200m scheme for GB-NI border warns of “huge shortage” of customs agents. Via @SJAMcBride /1

newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/…
He adds: “Export from GB with import to Ireland [is] amongst the most complicated...We expect heavy volumes at Dover from tonight as GB exports start to ramp up and many transporters do not have transit and EU clearance in place.” ...remember @BrandonLewis ‘no border’ tweet 🙄/2
He then warns - as @RHARichardB had warned - that the issue is companies providing poorly cleansed/matched data...and announces CCC doesn’t have capacity to raise docs in mainland EU/3
Read 10 tweets
2 Jan
Can we squash this tiresome trope that teachers don't want schools to open? Or that arguments for closing schools are somehow preserve of liberal/wet child-eating commies....this is about hard choices as the #COVID19 is running out of control (R above 1) /1
A decision to shut schools impacts different groups, whose interests all have to be weighted. Children. Teachers. Parents. The Economy. The NHS. Let's take each in turn. /2
First children. Simple one this. They are not (except in rare cases) impacted by the virus, but clearly they can pass it on to those who are impacted. They desperately need to be in school (I write as father of three teens in big Brighton state school) and suffer if they aren't/3
Read 19 tweets

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