Thread by @faisalislam

Lorry queues at Dover, due to ferry cancellations and post Brexit customs checks/ paperwork on outgoing lorries, truckers tell my colleague @BBCChrisMorris who has been looking at the almost regular use of Dover TAP queues this month:

bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

Here’s what I’ve been told about this.

should be said, on both sides of border, up until last week, officials had been pleasantly surprised re new incoming (ie EU to UK) checks seemed to settle ok. “Turnbacks” of lorries with incorrect paperwork 30%ish in 1st week, down to 5ish%

3 separate things

1. New UK checks incoming, some paperwork required at eg Calais - seems smooth, tho traffic low. Awaiting stats.

2. New UK checks eg off M20, described as “black box” -little info emerging re some long import delays

3. Dover TAP activated repeatedly outbound

local councilor says that Dover TAP queuing system has been activated 15 times in past 20 days. Others say it has been activated on 12 days in Jan. Either way is more than normal for low traffic Jan, can be seen eg below seeing queues of 7 miles…

https://twitter.com/poferriesfr8/status/1485991152495046667?s=21

But what you’ll see from that account is TAP is being used a lot, but not constantly. Eg right now, it’s not in use. There are more queues than normal, but not permanent, they are eventually cleared. What we havent seen yet is the more serious requirement for eg Operation Brock..

To further complicate things, the contraflow barriers required for Brock (parking thousands lorries on M20) are being moved from hard shoulder into central reservation of M20, for rapid deployment. So there are roadworks to strengthen that too. But Brock not needed to date…

Two other things - operators tell us that the new inland checks facility at Sevington on M20 is a “black box” where trucks can stay for hours and hours. Questions about preparedness of hauliers and on the new systems. This is even before wider checks introduced later in year.

And going other way, EU tightened its import requirements on agrifood. means some eg fish exporters who had found a way through the 70 pages of forms now required find themselves having to get certificates for multiple types of exports, lorries turned back etc..“back to last Jan”

Are these economically significant trade disruptions, local traffic issue or new normal of now non-frictionless border with biggest trade partner? Wd need to get stats to determine whether the first, but so far haven’t seen worst scale of disruption. Some fears re half term tho..

But the economically significant change may not actually be visible - it’s in the trade that is not flowing, especially from the EU to the UK over the course of last year before new checks introduced, and the other way in Q1 last year - see here: bbc.co.uk/news/business-…