24


Issue 8 2020 - Freight Business Journal The crunch is coming


The Brexit transition period ends on 31 December, ushering in a new era in which customs clearance will be needed on goods moving between the UK and EU. But how well prepared is the industry – and more importantly, its customers?


It’s all in the preparation, says APLL


With barely a month to go until the end of the transition period, Brexit is still really an unknown at the moment, says Mark Ward, managing director of major logistics operator APLL UK. “I would expect most


businesses are planning for what


they see as the worst-


case scenario which would be trading under the World Trade Organisation and its associated rules and tariff s. A free trade deal would certainly help boost trade but, adversely,


too many cheap imports could risk manufacturing and in turn impact jobs. From a Customs clearance perspective, a free trade deal could make life a little easier, but our understanding is that declarations would still need to be made, albeit simpler ones.” APLL has worked very closely


with its customers to manage the impending impact of Brexit. Ward says: “We do expect workload to increase as a result of changes in requirements and regulations and so in turn we have focussed


on three areas – increasing our feet on the ground, at least on an interim level whilst we understand more about Brexit, educating and training the core team and keeping them informed of Brexit related guidance and investment in technology and automation to streamline and improve our document checking processes and data quality. All of these areas will help set us up for 2021 and a Brexit World.” APLL has spoken to agents in the UK. “Dover had no additional


capacity and advised that’s


very much the case in that area of the UK. We have an agent in Felixstowe willing to take on capacity should the need arise. APLL is connected through Dover and can process customs declarations on EU traffi c from 1


January. We also have an


agreement in principle with an agent in Ireland.” Ward continues that in the


early days of Brexit, many customers imported and stored extra stocks in the UK, but the delays and the transition planning between the UK and EU has made these plans unnecessary. “As it stands we don’t see any of our customers taking any specifi c measures – I do though feel that Covid has ‘distracted’ a number of organisations from Brexit. And the challenge is that near- sourcing has become a strategic focus given how Covid impacted exports out of the Far East. Clearly with near-sourcing from Europe you play in to the Brexit challenges.” APLL has discussed switching


BREXIT - CUSTOMS - SORTED


Digital Process with Data Extraction Tools Imports, Exports, Tariffs, Data, Hiring


Let's Talk Now !! “Time is running out – Make sure you are ready”


Check – Have you the best processes in place to meet the challenges of BREXIT ? Are you a digital organisation?


Is your data managed real time, accurate and scalable? Is it transparent?


Would you like to eliminate errors and reduce operational costs and time? Are you conndent in driving competitive advantage post Brexit? Are you compliant and audit ready?


Change – Painless, simple on-boarding of a new streamlined process aligned to your business and its operations now and beyond BREXIT.


Go – If you want to keep your business moving and take a competitive advantage of BREXIT…… actions need sorting NOW !


from road via Dover/Calais/ Dover to intermodal and East Coast ports with customers but: “It is really down to them to weigh up the cost, service and effi ciency element based on our analysis.” APLL’s customers have been


focussed in the last couple of months on ensuring their customs brokerage needs are in place and ready, either in-sourced or through a third party logistics company. Ward adds: “We have seen our customers recruit quite heavily, and in turn have spent signifi cant money to ensure both they and 3PLs are geared up to support them. It’s stated that 50% of businesses in the UK have not considered or planned for the impact of Brexit. With the Covid situation, this has become a serious distraction – only now are we starting to see more and more businesses jumping on the Brexit contingency bandwagon.”


toughest truckers


Brexit scares off even the


One major effect of Brexit is that European-based truckers don’t want to come to the UK any more, says Dover-based agent, John Shirley. Many of the truckers he uses have already told him that they do not plan to come to the UK again and a recent local BIFA meeting came to a similar conclusion. In a low-margin business like international trucking, sitting in a queue for customs or parked up waiting for documentation to be sorted out would obliterate already slim profits, says Shirley. Even without Brexit, truck


operators are having a tough time hanging on to drivers, he continues. Drivers


are often


paid by the kilometre, so when they are stuck in queues or truck parks, they are not earning – yet more reason not to come to the UK any more. Shirley’s main business


is


not in fact traffic between the UK and EU but to and from East European countries that are still outside the EU Customs Union such as Serbia, Turkey or Kyrgyzstan. He is well used to having trucks stuck on borders for hours, but what he doesn’t want to see is the same situation replicated in Dover or Calais. But already, the Clecat European forwarders’ association is warning that there are not enough clerks on the French side. There’s also a worrying lack


of capacity for veterinary or health checks for foodstuffs moving across the Channel. “One of my customers is a charity that sends dog food to Romania, who will have to arrange for Port Health checks after the end of this year. How are they going to do that with a small staff of volunteers?” The added costs of being


outside the EU go far beyond the £50 or so fee for a customs entry, Shirley says. Demurrage costs for trucks laid up in parks can run into hundreds of pounds, and there is also the cost of using deferment accounts and so on. Unaccompanied trailer


operation on the ferries might eliminate being


stuck


in queues, but it brings many other difficulties, especially on the Short Straits routes to Dover or


Folkestone. Ports


simply don’t have the space to store drop-trailers waiting to be picked up, even for a couple of hours, and Eurotunnel isn’t geared up for


unaccompanied operation at all. Longer routes from the Continent to, say, Immingham or Tilbury, probably wouldn’t be economic for most hauliers because the crossings cost much more


and, moreover,


there isn’t currently enough ferry capacity on those routes to handle significantly more traffic than they do at the moment. The end result, says Shirley,


are more expensive goods in the shops and, even worse, production lines grinding to a halt and all that that entails for the economy. In amongst all this turmoil,


John Shirley will be celebrating 25 years in business on


16


January next year. He is pretty confident that his company will ride out the Brexit storm – after all, awkward borders on the other side of Europe are its regular business – but he might just consider a strategic move to set up another office in the Calais-Boulogne region. It won’t replace the existing office in Dover, but it will be a useful hedge against future developments.


///BREXIT


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36