Thread by @steve_way

Taking a van to the EU as a @scouts volunteer- a thread. Buckle up!

In my volunteer role in Scouting I use my D1E to support teams of younger leaders who don’t have D1 on their license as that was removed on 1st Jan 1997.

I was asked to drive a 3.5tonne van to Switzerland /1

The advice from @scouts HQ mirrored the advice from the Government & there were lots of warnings about vans being impounded for not having the proper documentation /2

gov.uk/guidance/trans…

Having read this, I thought ‘there must be companies offering contract Transport Manager services’ so Googled & found some. They were very helpful & told me that volunteers are not subject to ‘hire or reward’ but to take a letter explaining who we were. /3

One told me to contact the @londonchamber - they could help with the ATA carnet we would need. This was gold, it turned out. As London Scouts (& chair of the charity) I joined the LCC & rang them. /4

We needed to complete the ATA Carnet online for everything we were taking, itemised & with country of origin, value and weight. The other leaders set about this & created a list of 350 line items, value £8K & about 1.3tonnes, loading it all in a box trailer /5

This took 4 evenings. The list was uploaded & submitted. The @londonchamber team turned it around in 90 minutes, & rejected it. Here are the reasons… (this is a load of old tents and equipment) /6

Half a day on Google & Amazon tracking down manufacturers, sizes and countries of origin later, we had an ATA carnet. As we had only 5 days before we left, I went to the @londonchamber & collected it /6

The Carnet cost £360 & £180 for insurance to cover the value of the goods - if they don’t come back or you don’t return the carnet you forfeit the value. Alternatives to insurance - deposit the value in cash… /7

Next we needed two Goods Movement References (GMRs) to go in and out of the EU. These need the Carnet number, crossing details and vehicle reg. We had a hired van so couldn’t be sure of the reg until we had it, fortunately it only takes c.1 hour (& £18) to get it. Ready to go! /8

Almost… once you have a GMR you are instructed to book in to a UK Inland Border facility. For Dover this is Sevington or the Stop 24 services on the M20. The process sent us to Sevington… /9

At Sevington you park up in a giant lorry park, put on your hi-vis and walk to the portacabin offices & hand over your documents & phone number. 35 minutes later (sitting in the van) you get a text to say they are ready, & the GMR is now authorised so the barcode will work. /10

So to Dover, & through the border & onto the ferry with no hitches. The queue of lorries up the M20 was quite something, though… (also if you are doing this you need a freight ferry ticket, not just a car one - but that does get you a fried breakfast as part of the cost) /11

On French in Dunkirk we reported to the French Customs office to get the transit part of the carnet stamped (the export bit was done at Sevington). This was a total contrast with a stereotypically laconic Frenchman in a t-shirt taking the paperwork off as we waited outside /12

Carnet stamped, we drove through the night to Basel arriving at 04:00. Drove into the freight customs to find it closed. The Swiss customs guy we eventually found told us ‘The French go home at 4:00pm, you’ll have to go to Germany’ - so we did. /13

Fortunately it only takes 20 minutes to go from the French border to the German one… The German customs guy appeared to have never seen a Carnet before but eventually took the ‘transit in’ part & stamped the receipt page. /14

We walked across the border plaza to the Swiss customs & they took the import document & stamped the receipt. We were in Switzerland! /15

As well as the kit on the Carnet we had personal kit for the leaders travelling with 50+ teenage Scouts on the train. We had separate letters of authority from each in case customs asked. They didn’t & here we are in Kandersteg, Switzerland /PS

Total cost £600 plus freight ferry tickets. Total mandays to research the process, sort the load, complete the paperwork, get the physical documents & wait at various customs facilities - 9. It used to be a case of load the van and go! #brexit

@AndrewWRush But make sure all your food is allowable as imports. Ask the LCC carnet team

@AndrewWRush Also, if you are taking catering quantities of food & get checked they may think you are intending to sell it…