Thread by @vivamjm

From a friend in the Freight Forwarding Industry who has authorised me to send this message as he has now just resigned !!!
Hi Michael. I don't know want this public for the moment. Let me think about it. What I have seen going in the EU has been a total car crash

60 80% sales down for many food exporters loads of freight companies just not getting involved.
I know a few companies setting up in Dublin particularly Asian foods rice etc and using it as a base.

I have also heard from good sources that food exporters are entering the EU via Belfast and dodging many checks.
I think the government will have to avoid SPS checks in GB long beyond July.
I can honestly say that importers are not 100% sure of the changes

and just leaving it to the fwding/customs agents to sort it out.
Freight charges to clients next year are going up in general by 15 to 35% for European road freight.
These are rates all being banded around by many of the big boys.

The thing I have definitely seen is that rates from hauliers can flip in days.
So we booked a trailer and they sold it to us for €2750 to the UK. The day of the collection due to happen the haulier had no traction
.. in the end they could do it a week later for €3850

It’s like the Wild West
There is still a woeful inadequate level of training.
I feel sorry for so many youngsters they are being failed by the industry. If you are under 50 it’s unlikely that you experienced life out side the SM
Likewise customs officers poorly trained too.

In Europe all I can say is that on a human side the UK is a pain in the arse for their import and export departments . I ve heard "your Brexit not ours" so many times it’s awful because you know something is sitting in customs & they are not going to push to get it sorted

they are going let it sit there are let it rack up demurrage or storage charges.
You and I know that customs officers are human and if they want to be an arsehole they will. Nothing to be done. So let’s say numb nuts in no 10 say something to create a bit of publicity at home

and is offensive to say France mark my words they are going to go looking for shit. They do.
I am a member of a band of very few people who have worked in logistics pre SM and post. I have seen businesses spring up all over the South East because the trade barriers were removed.

I am seeing them thinking on their feet now and just importing direct to the EU setting up fulfilment centres in NL FR DE and shipping from there. The south east was stripped of its industry from the mid 70s onwards and the EU helped build an exporting economy.

The north, unless it cuts its costs to mitigate the cost of administration of exporting will lose its client base and I fear for their future and the North South gap will widen because the money market albeit affected by Brexit will soften the loss of some businesses in South

I am truly trying to keep positive. And I truly believe that most remainers will make a good fist of Brexit but brexitiers are always looking at the past. They will shout how bad we are being treated and not look at the reality that Britain is now alone in the world of bullies

I do believe that we will re enter the SM & a CU within 10 years but we have to taste the reality of this mad decision first...
In the meantime the UK doesn't seem to give a shit ...
a self inflicted painful decade ahead.