Martin Reid, RHA Scotland & NI Director

Martin Reid

RHA Director for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

BREXIT – THE WATERS ARE NO CLEARER

As we hurtle relentlessly toward the deadline date of 29th March 2019 it is clear that the Government are a million miles away from a place where they can confidently predict a seamless exit. Only this week former Bank of England governor Lord King told the BBC the UK’s preparations are “incompetent” and lacks a “credible bargaining position” with Brussels. That, coming from a Brexit supporter!

He also acknowledges that the EU members have been far more united in their response to Britain invoking Article 50. After decades of building up a unified system of rules they are not going to make it easy for the UK to dismantle it and cherry pick the bits the Government want to keep, and they do not want to set a precedent. EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier is clear in his thoughts. “We have a coherent market for goods, services, capital and people - our own ecosystem that has grown over decades,” he said. “You cannot play with it by picking pieces. There is another reason why I strongly oppose the British proposal.” He was quoted as saying this 2 days ago (at the time of writing) and on the same day that Theresa May announced in the Sunday telegraph that she was “confident” that a “good deal” could be reached. The reality is that the two sides are miles apart and the negotiations on behalf of the UK are being conducted by a party divided on which approach to take and with little support for the Chequers plan. May did continue to say that it was right that we prepared for a “no deal” Brexit even though such an eventuality would create “real challenges for both the UK and the EU” in some sectors. Given the startling lack of knowledge of how our sector operates from those in Westminster coupled with the lack of leadership from Stormont I think we can say with reasonable confidence that road haulage will be one of the sectors that faces “real challenges”.

Lack of Understanding

Our CEO Richard Burnett took representation of RHA members to meet with Transport Secretary Chris Grayling recently. By the time the meeting was over, they were astounded at the lack of basic understanding of how permits work and what hauliers go through at customs. There is a genuine concern that the government do not have any kind of handle on the chaos our industry could be thrown into. In the Government ‘Trading with the EU if there’s no Brexit deal’ technical notice, it states that would be responsible for their own Safety and Security Declarations – a new move for the industry. Operators would be required to submit two types of Safety and Security Declarations: • Exit Summary Declaration (EXS) to the customs authority from which the consignment is being exported, and • Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) to the customs authority that the consignment is entering. Shouldn’t lead to many delays then? I guess that won’t matter much anyway if we have to go down the permit route, subject

to quotas, there won’t be much going in and out of Europe anyway (another issue that politicians seem to have difficulty understanding! 1200 permits in total for UK). Still, there will always be opportunities somewhere within the inevitable changes and hopefully when the government publish the document which covers how transport and logistics will go about business in the event of a “No Deal” scenario, these opportunities will be evident. Even if they are marked in red pen and highlighted I still feel that the 21-month implementation period following on from March 2019 is becoming more and more important. Through my dealings with Government across the UK I get no sense that they will be ready for deadline day in March.

Did you know?

The RHA will be holding a conference open to members and not members covering issues such as Brexit, ports, clean air, compliance and diversity and have guest speakers to guide us through these topics. The conference will take place on the 18th October at the Rosspark Hotel, Doagh Road, Kells, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT42 3LZ. If you would like to join us please drop an email to events@rha.uk.net or call 01932 838903 to book a place.