No wild parties but business remains good


28 It wasn’t quite the party


that had been planned, but Manchester based forwarder France Line marked its 40th birthday at the height of the Covid pandemic in May. “We had to scale down the celebrations,” says managing director Marie Boyer. “We just sent an email to our customers to thank them for their support over the years, but we got many unsolicited replies complementing us on our good work. What matters most though is not how long you have been in business but your reputation and the quality of the service that you provide.” France Line has, since its


inception, been based in Manchester’s Trafford Park, although it moved to new, larger


offices in the area about three years ago. Much, though not all of its customer base is in North- West England, with a particular emphasis on exports. However, these days the company serves the whole of Europe, and also manages a fair amount of cross- trade non-UK work. It’s not been an easy time for


freight operators, in Manchester or for that matter anywhere else in the country. However, during the pandemic and lockdowns, France Line was able to adapt itself well to the situation, with staff working from home and business continuing pretty much as usual, says Boyer. “There were a few border delays, but services continued pretty much as usual,” she recalls.


There was, inevitably, some


downturn in volumes as industry adjusted to the abnormal situation but most customers have carried on trading. “We were lucky in that we work with a number of different industries, so we were able to maintain around 50-60% of our turnover, so I’m quite pleased,” Boyer points out. There were few delays to


and from the company’s main market in France, but it was necessary to keep a close check on customer opening hours to ensure that collections and deliveries happened smoothly. The main impact on operations was the need for drivers heading into France to fill out certification forms but they soon got the hang of what was required.


Pandemic fails to deflect Dachser


As if planning for Brexit, training staff in customs clearance and introducing new IT systems was not enough, Dachser UK has had to carry out all this work against the background of the Covid pandemic. “It’s placed an extra,


unexpected challenge on all of us,” says regional managing director for UK and Ireland, Mark Rollinson. “It’s not the best situation, but we have adjusted things over the past few months, and we’re now very comfortable with online training.” While Dachser uses some


BIFA courses, particularly online, much of


its training


is done online by its own customs experts. This covers the basics of how to do customs declarations and also in using the sophisticated systems that Dachser has introduced. “I think we are as well


prepared as anyone can be,” declares Rollinson. “I don’t think anyone can know that they


are totally ready for


Brexit, but this puts us in a good place.” But it’s not only Dachser


that has to get ready for the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of the year. Customers too will need to change how they do business with Europe. Rollinson says: “We’ve been working on our


Brexit project for the past two years, but we’ve noticed from 1 September a really big change in the approach by many shippers in the UK, but also in the EU. There is now a lot of focus on Brexit that, perhaps understandably, wasn’t there before.” Of course, Dachser is a pan-


European operator and for many of its EU customers, the UK will be only one market (or source of supply) among many. Nevertheless, there is now a sense of urgency among most shippers about the changes that are due to come at the end of the year. But while shippers may


be readying themselves, there’s no guarantee that the many government and customs systems will all be fully functioning


– and,


more importantly, properly communicating with each other – come the end of 2020. Rollinson says: “It’s a ‘big bang’ with a lot of different systems due to go into operation at the end of the year, at the same time that everyone is having to think about processes that we haven’t necessarily had to think about for almost the last 30 years. It’s not ideal – I would have liked them to be in place so that we could test them, but complaining doesn’t change anything.” New systems that are due


to go into operation include the Kent Permit to control hauliers’ access to access the county from 1 January, the Goods


Vehicle Movement


System (GVMS) that will pre- lodge goods ahead of their arrival at the border, and its


Issue 8 2020 - Freight Business Journal


///FRANCE & CHANNEL PORTS


that lockdowns and restrictions will be a feature of normal life for some time to come. Now, France Line has another


challenge to contend with – the start of ‘real’ Brexit at the end of the year when the transition period


With strict quarantine


regulations in force for travel from France to the UK, the company’s executives have naturally avoided unnecessary business trips to the country, but Zoom and Microsoſt Teams have allowed management to continue nearly as normal. Investment in IT and laptop computers has allowed people to work efficiently from home and there has been little impact on France Line’s customers. However, Boyer is not


assuming that the situation will return to anything like normal for the foreseeable future and


are making preparations. France Line has also spent


ends and customs


clearance will be required for goods moving to and from the EU. “We have carried out some training and we have had a lot of information from customs and from our Brexit consultant, which we have relayed on to our customers,” Boyer explains. Great efforts have been made to educate customers in the need for commercial invoices, packing lists and so on, and France Line has also invested in new soſtware to ease the process. However, as


Boyer says,


planning is one thing, what actually happens on the day may be quite another. But, most customers do seem to have taken the message on board and


services there isn’t really that much of an alternative. The Short Straits, even with some delays, are still likely to be the quickest option on most routes. In any case, any significant diversion to


the


longer alternative crossing could quickly lead to queues building up there too. Dachser already makes


French counterpart, SI Brexit. Eurotunnel does at least have its own Agile Border system in place. There is of course much that


remained to be decided about Brexit at the time of writing in mid-November, depending on what trade deal, if any, the UK was likely to strike with the EU. A no deal Brexit might mean an increase in checks on plant and animal products, and it could also increase the likely intensity and scrutiny of customs checks. It might also be bad news for UK exporters if it leads to duties and taxes on goods sold to the EU. Heightened customs checks


also have ramifications for traffic passing through the ports, in particular on the busy Short Straits crossings through Dover/Calais and Eurotunnel. While it has been suggested that some freight could be diverted


to other for Dachser’s fast routes, groupage


some use of the Rotterdam- Felixstowe ro ro route but Rollinson thinks it unlikely that the operator will transfer major amounts of its traffic to the longer, more northerly North Sea crossings. It is possible that companies adjust


might their supply


chains to cope with Brexit, for example switching suppliers away from the UK – or EU – or moving or adding distribution centres. However, he has seen only limited evidence that this is happening, and certainly not on any great scale. Supply chains tend to be in a state of constant flux, so it is in any case often hard to say whether a particular decision was due to Brexit or would have happened anyway. If there is no trade deal, extra


duties could make some UK goods more expensive but this would likely affect low-value commodities which we do not now export in large quantities anyway. As a primarily groupage


operator, Dachser has to be mindful


of what customs systems and procedures it uses.


time with its haulier partners to ensure that they understand the need for the Kent Permit before they head for the Channel ports and other formalities aſter the end of the transition period. It’s been suggested that there


may be some congestion on the Dover/Calais ferries and the Channel Tunnel and that some freight could be diverted to other crossings. However, France Line already uses alternative routes from Portsmouth and Newhaven where possible and, as Boyer points out, the really no alternative to the Short Straits routes for many places. As Boyer concludes: “We are


planning as much as we can in advance, we are testing data in advance, but you never know – there is always the possibility of something that you haven’t checked. But we are flexible and we will adapt to the situation.”


With customers depending on its swift and timely deliveries, clearance at the port is clearly not an option as one problem consignment on a trailer would end up delaying everything. Generally, for freight into


the UK, Dachser favours CFSP (Customs Freight Simplified Procedures) as it allows a simplified declaration to be carried out before arriving at the border and allows the full declaration to be done in the following month – ample time for any issues to be ironed out. Also, unlike ERTS (Enhanced Remote Transit Shed), CFSP means that shipments with customs


issues are not


occupying its own, very busy facilities. Outwards from the UK,


Dachser will use transit facilities through to any of its own branches in Europe. “Because it’s our own network, it


gives us the flexibility to


undertake tasks such as consolidated clearances for multiple shipments going to different destinations.” That means paying for one rather than several individual clearances and can be a major saving for some shippers. But however meticulous


pre-Brexit planning may be, Dachser is well aware that things will evolve as Brexit progresses and that further simplifications may become available in time. There is also


a lot that a large, 29 >>


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