Thread by @ColdChainShane

“Post-Brexit trading is really hard”; “stuff is starting to move, but morale and motivation in the team is very low”; “trade has to pick up soon, but we don’t really know how it will.”
A thread of my article for @UKandEU 1/ ukandeu.ac.uk/red-tape-bette…

Through the prism of the debate that has raged for the past four or five years years, things are great… or terrible, temporary…. or never-ending, largely dependent on what you think of the idea of #Brexit. The debate isn't over but logistics businesses have to block it out 2/

As I say in the piece - "the political and media row is not something that transport planners, warehouse managers, lorry drivers, buyers and sellers care much about. They are battling to just do their jobs within realistic timeframes and in reasonable working conditions. 3/

"Red tape is exhausting. It causes tension, stress and arguments that are wearing people down." see this excellent report from @lisaocarroll about @ColdChainFed members McCulla Ireland theguardian.com/politics/2021/… 4/

We are angry about the lack of a proper implementation period It is simply not right to pile this much pressure on this many people in the middle of global pandemic.

But for our own sanity we have to focus on the road ahead not things we can't change now. 5/

So what is this all for?

Within the haulage and warehouse sector there is genuine hope for our economic future outside the EU.

In many ways UK logistics suffered in the Single Market. Free movement of goods, services and labour dramatically changed our supply chain. 6/

Today, 75-80% of the vehicles and drivers that fetch and carry goods between UK and the EU, are not from UK. EU hauliers, once here, compete for inland haulage work, making up maybe c.20% of the total assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl… 7/

The cost base of haulage companies operating out of Eastern Europe is significantly lower than those facing UK-based operators.

Here is an idea is what makes up cost from a UK operator perspective via @RHANews rha.uk.net/getattachment/…

Consumers have benefitted for sure. In food the 40-year rise of the supermarkets has coincided with an ever-expanding pool of cheaper logistics alternatives.The result is that a haulier can expect to be paid largely the same money for a job today that they were paid 20yrs ago. 9/

Competition is a good thing and it will be a big part of our future. EU-wide competition has meant that we are by many factors more efficient, more responsive, and more productive today than we were 40 years ago. 10/

But it does mean we enter the next phase of our supply chain evolution largely underinvested. If cost-cutting is our legacy, it is hard to see how that suits our future. The way we move, and store, goods today must change if we are to meet the net zero challenge before 2050. 11/

The confidence required to buy the vehicles, build infrastructure and invent technology will not be possible if we remain fixated on race-to-bottom supply chain models.

This intro to @ColdChainFed's net zero project gives an idea of what is involved
coldchainfederation.org.uk/road-to-net-ze… 12/

So we are faced with twin challenges

(1) getting our exporters (in particular) through the crisis and back on a path to growth - this requires a reset in how we set ourselves up to support our international exporters - see me (again) in @thetimes 13/ thetimes.co.uk/article/our-fo…

(2) using the new found 'control' we have over our import flows and our ability to promote domestic industries to ensure the promises made that 'Brexit and net zero and levelling up' can genuinely go hand-in-hand.

We have vey little idea how Ministers intend to achieve this 14/

It's been a month - it's not been very long and being realistic we have some way to go before we will emerge from 'crisis' phase, not least because we can't even started rebuilding from covid yet - but with things so bleak we need to find ways to look to the future 15/