PR342_P40-43_Lorry parks.qxp_PR342_p40-43 13/10/2020 13:44 Page 40
LORRY PARKING
Lorries queuing in Kent
What will Brexit deliver? Lorries will need a permit to enter Kent and queues 7,000 trucks-long could clog up roads when Brexit is finally completed
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ruck drivers will need a permit to enter Kent once the Brexit transition period ends. The government is also planning to build a network of new lorry parks across Britain to hold vehicles having to negotiate more stringent paperwork checks when arriving in Europe when UK leaves the customs union and the single market on 1 January. The Kent Access Permit (KAP) system could be enforced by police or using cameras monitoring the number plates of vehicles entering the county at points such as the Dartford Crossing bringing freight from Essex. Drivers of lorries weighing more than 7.5 tonnes will need to apply for the permits online and show that they have all the paperwork they need to ferry goods to Europe. In a letter sent to the freight sector last month, minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove set out the government’s “reasonable worst-case scenario” planning for when the UK leaves the single market and customs union rules at New Year. The scenario envisages just half of big businesses and 20% of small businesses would be ready for the strict application of new EU requirements at the border. Gove, warned that queues up to 7,000 trucks-long could clog up roads around the port of Dover and Channel Tunnel. Border disruption could happen whether or not the UK secures a trade deal with the European Union. This is because EU is expected to impose full goods controls on the UK, stopping all freight without the correct documentation at the end of the transition period on 1 January. Speaking in the House of Commons on 23 September, Gove told MPs: “In those circumstances that could mean between only 30% and 60% of laden HGVs would arrive at the border with the necessary formalities completed for the goods on board. They’d therefore be turned back by the French border authorities, clogging the Dover to Calais crossing.”
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Gove said it could lead to delays of up to two days for drivers waiting to cross the Channel. Although he said those queues were likely to subside after businesses learned from seeing their cargo denied access to the Continent. A similar set of projections were made for a no-deal Brexit a year ago as part of what was known as Operation Yellowhammer. The Kent Access Permit system would be enforced by police and ANPR cameras. The KAP is intended to ensure drivers have all the paperwork they need, he said. The government has also been consulting on an updated version of Operation Brock, the system used to manage freight vehicles heading to the Channel Ports in Kent. The government is also developing a Smart Freight System, a web portal operating a red, amber and green traffic light system for hauliers. Only those given the green light, after passing a documentations test, will be given a KAP. A briefing document drawn up by the government’s Border and Protocol Delivery Group reveals the system will not go into a public beta testing phase until the end of November, leaving little time to launch it before 1 January. Labour’s shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, Rachel Reeves, said: “It is incredible that ministers are only now admitting to their plans to arrest British truckers for entering Kent without new travel passports. With just over three months to go, how are businesses meant to prepare amid this Conservative carnival of incompetence?’”
The reasonable worst-case The “reasonable worst-case scenario” report drawn up by the Border and Protocol Delivery Group was presented to a meeting of the XO (exit operations) committee chaired by cabinet minister Michael Gove for decisions on the next stages of development in the border operating model, the goods vehicle management system and so-called “smart freight” software designed to regulate the flow of traffic into Kent and guard against congestion. The delivery group report said that between 30-50% of trucks crossing the Channel wold not be ready for the new regulations coming into force on 1 January 2021, while a “lack of capacity to hold unready trucks at French ports” could reduce the flow of traffic across the Dover Strait to 60-80% of normal levels.
