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By Chris Lewis


How much credence should we put on the various pronouncements contained in the Yellowhammer document about the likely effect of a No Deal Brexit? Remainers were quick to seize on the more gloomy predictions as evidence of looming chaos while the government naturally sought to play down their significance. However, the fact that it fought hard not to publish the report might have fuelled the more fevered speculation that things were about to come badly unstuck on 31 October. There is of course an awful lot of politics in this and, as the rest of us know only too well, we need to take the pronouncements of politicians with a cellar-full of salt. That said, any suggestion that trucks could take two days to cross the Channel needs to be taken seriously. True, we have faced similar situations before but in this case the situation has the potential to drag on for a lot longer than even the most long-drawn-out French ferrymens’ strike. On the other hand, if push really came to shove, HMRC could – as it has already suggested it might – put the priority on keeping freight moving and worry about possible loss of revenue later. Not an ideal situation, but it would at least ensure that vital supplies continued to get through.


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Does the UK’s ports industry hide its light under a bushel? Shipping minister Nusrat Ghani certainly thinks so, as she explained to a presentation by the port of Portsmouth at the Houses of Parliament in early September. The occasion marked the publication of a report commission by Portsmouth Port from Oxford Economics which found that this – relatively small – maritime gateway contributes no less than £390 million to the local and national economy and supports 5,600 jobs. However, as the minister said, as a sector the ports industry is very low key and shy about talking about how successful it is. From a government minister’s point of view, the ports industry has the huge advantage that it makes a minimal call on public funds – it is very largely self-supporting, generally making the hefty investments it needs from its own funds.


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The prospect of the UK leaving the EU has opened up the debate on freeports once again. The government has – perhaps slightly disingenuously - presented Brexit as an opportunity for the UK, free of Brussels’ shackles, to reintroduce the concept to sea and airports around the country. Freeports could bring benefits to traders that are willing and able to relocate their operations there, but already there are calls for something much wider-ranging incorporating whole port regions together with nearby airports. However, as has been pointed out by some, many of the benefits of freeports could be obtained through general customs facilitation – which would have the benefit of being open to all companies, and not only ones in a specific location. But not everyone is enthusiastic about the idea, including trade unionists who seem them as creating an environment in which tax avoidance and other less


Amid all the brexit turmoil, I suppose it’s hardly surprising that the CDS replacement for the Chief computer system has been put on the back burner. Indeed, at the moment, it’s hard to say whether the gas is even turned on. BIFA says that it has “numerous concerns” over HMRC’s new computer, saying that progress has been inconsistent and with little concrete news. It is understandable for HMRC to concentrate on beefi ng up the clunky old Chief system to ensure that it can at least get us all over the line when and if Brexit comes about, and worry about CDS later. In a conversation with HMRC, this does seem to be the agency’s thinking. However, as Bifa points out, a valid concern is that the development process does not involve representatives of the end-user. The last thing we need in the post- Brexit era is a not-fi t-for purpose customs computer.


If the foregoing sounds like a paean in favour of free-enterprise capitalism, think again. Portsmouth is actually council-owned. Again, the ports industry is different from others in the variety of ownership and management structures. In the UK, there are fully privately owned ports, a small handful of municipal ones – of which Portsmouth is arguably the most successful – and trust ports, a model that is very nearly unique to the industry. Portsmouth works because there is broad cross-party support for it at the city council and it is not subject to change at the whims of whichever party is in power, according to the port and council leaders at the House of Commons gathering – to the extent that it is able to contribute £8.4 million to the council coffers every year. Ports, like most enterprises, work best when the professionals are allowed to get on and run them without constant interference from politicians.


As the defi nitive publication within the sea, air, road and rail freight sectors, each issue includes regular news and analysis, in-depth coverage discovering the business decisions behind the news stories, shipper and exporter reports, opinion, geographical features, political and environmental issues.


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next issue >> Audit & Pay.


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Issue 6 2019 - Freight Business Journal From the Editor


///NEWS


FBJ is the only UK and one of the few pan-European Multimodal newspapers. The comments we have received prove there is still room for a hard copy publication within the freighting industry. You don’t have to look at a screen all day!


savoury aspects of free-market buccaneering can thrive. It’s a moot point whether freeports simply ease VAT and duty cash-flow or are more of a vehicle for outright tax avoidance. But what is possibly true is that they could be the harbinger of a move to a more unregulated, US-style business environment as the country throws off EU control.


Meanwhile, it is pretty much business as usual as far as developing the UK’s transport infrastructure is concerned – or rather no business, as usual. There is still no clarity on whether the third Heathrow runway will get the go-ahead while the High Speed 2 rail plan is the subject of yet another review. Rather ironic, then, that one of the stories that surfaced on the BBC website in early September was a suggestion that a bridge could be built to link Northern Ireland with South-west Scotland. Perhaps it’s an attempt to boost morale in the two nations while the Brexit saga drags interminably on. From an engineering point of view, it’s not an impossible dream, but whether such a plan could ever negotiate the political pitfalls and somehow raise enough fi nance is a very good question. Meanwhile, it would be nice if some of the transport schemes that we have already debated ad nauseum actually got under way.


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