What will Brexit deliver?

Lorries queuing in Kent

Lorries will need a permit to enter Kent and queues 7,000 trucks-long could clog up roads when Brexit is finally completed

Truck 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.”

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.

“It is estimated a maximum queue of 6,500 HGVs may develop fully accessible for commercial vehicles, away from unsuitable in January,” the report said. “Disruption could be lower in the roads and low bridges. While the lorry parks are likely to be a initial days of January but we would expect sustained disruption temporary solution as new systems, processes and demands are to worsen over the first two weeks as demand builds.” embedded post-Brexit, Logistics UK said it is important that the

Delays will impact on people returning to work after the authorities remain mindful of local businesses and residents, Christmas and New Year holidays. The disruption is assumed to with road disruption to be kept to a minimum. Yarsley added: build in the first two weeks of January, and could last three “The government has to ensure that the sites are staffed with months, or longer should France rigorously apply Schengen qualified officials who have the means and the authority to get a passport checks on hauliers at Dover and the Channel Tunnel. vehicle border ready if the driver does not have the full paperwork

The delivery group said: “Considering demand levels in the required; this will be essential to keep traffic moving as quickly as first week of February, it is estimated that if readiness does not possible and protecting supply chains from further disruption.” improve by then, queues could reach a length of 7,000 HGVs. In Logistics UK is urging its members to adopt the new processes each case it is estimated that HGVs could take two days to reach they will need to use. However, it says, firms need early access to the front of the queue.” The report added: “Both imports and both UK and EU systems so that they can conduct testing and exports could be disrupted to a similar extent.” training before 1 January. Elisabeth de Jong, policy director, said:

The government says the scenario is not a prediction but an “Logistics UK has long warned government of the potential for illustration of what could be reasonably expected.A Cabinet border delays after the UK leaves the EU, and while there is still Office spokesperson said: “As a responsible government we time to put mitigations in place to avoid them, it will be a huge continue to make extensive preparations for a wide range of sce- challenge for government and industry to achieve.” narios, including the reasonable worst case. This is not a forecast or prediction of what will happen but rather a stretching scenario. Blame shifting It reflects a responsible government ensuring we are ready for all Michael Gove has been urging UK traders to get ready now for eventualities.” new border formalities that could help mitigate the disruption. Lorry parking plans He has told the freight industry that this needs to happen irrespective of whether or not there is a deal in the UK-EU trade Communities secretary Robert Jenrick has given himself powers negotiations. However, the freight industry has warned that to build truck parks across England to avoid chaotic queues at putting in place the measures needed to avoid border delays will ports when the United Kingdom finally leaves the European be a challenge for government and industry. Hauliers are concerned Union. A statutory instrument Town and Country Planning that they are being cast as the “fall guys” for delays and disruption (Border Facilities and Infrastructure) (EU Exit) (England) Special likely in January. Tensions are rising, with a recent meeting Development Order 2020 enables the between the freight industry and govgovernment to start construction in ernment being described as a council areas without the approval “washout” by the Road Haulage of local officials. Association (RHA).

The government has started con- Logistics UK is urging the government RHA chief executive Richard structing holding facilities for lorries in Kent that will be used to park goods vehicles that have the correct to ensure that drivers will have access to facilities such as toilets and showers Burnett said: “For years we’ve been warning government that there will be delays at ports but with 70 working paperwork to enter the EU. The hold- Chris Yarsley days to go until the end of the transiing pens will be a key part of Britain’s tion period they’re still not engaging plans to avoid border delays from 1 with us to come up with the solutions. January, when full customs controls The answers to the questions that will be imposed on goods travelling we raised in our letter to Mr Gove from the UK, whether or not it reaches a trade deal with the bloc. and during a subsequent roundtable meeting on Thursday 17

The Border and Protocol Delivery Group report also calls for September still remain unanswered; and for the industry on advice centres to be set up across the country, with 39 sites which the entire nation depends for maintaining the flow of identified at truck stop and service stations on all main motorways goods across borders, the future looks very bleak indeed. We including the M6, M40, M1 and M20. These centres would need described last month’s meeting between industry stakeholders to be equipped with printers to help hauliers who do not have the and Mr Gove’s team as a total washout. The government’s promises right documentation prepare for their onward journey to ports in that the UK will be ready for business on 1 January are just a Kent, Portsmouth, Holyhead and Felixstowe among others. The whitewash, and right now it appears that traders and haulage document notes to the Department for Transport that work to operators are being left to carry the can.” provide the advice centres is currently “unfunded”, with a parallel Should there be no trade deal agreed, UK hauliers would have Treasury bid for £18.5m still in development. to rely on special permits rationed by the Department for

The document recommends that a Border Impact Centre (BIC) Transport. Hauliers have also raised the possibility that the UK is set up by 31 December to help national and local authorities will have to sign up to EU rules limiting driver hours, in order to manage the change in border-destined traffic. The document also get access to European roads. explores Kent authorities co-locating with France’s Lille Crisis Cell in order to jointly mitigate potential chaos on the roads.

In response to emergency legislation passed by government to allow for the allocation of a reported 29 potential sites for lorry parks across the UK, Chris Yarsley, Logistics UK’s policy manager for road infrastructure, said: “Logistics UK supports the development of suitable infrastructure to assist with border readiness; these sites are essential to keep disruption on the UK’s roads to a minimum post-transition period, and for keeping trade moving as smoothly as possible across borders. We have been urging the government to ensure that drivers will have access to facilities, such as toilets and showers, if they are to be held in place for some time and are therefore pleased to see that the Order includes a provision for welfare facilities.”

However, Logistics UK is urging the government to build the Are we nearly there yet?lorry parks in locations close to road networks and that they are

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So, where do you park 7,000 lorries?

Design studio Fatkin has an answer

Just how much land would a 7,000-space lorry park need? Answering this question is the challenge that architectural practice Fatkin decided to answer as a fun exercise – and that may be the only occasion in which the words ‘fun’ and ‘Brexit’ appear in the same sentence.

The Fatkin team said: “Following the revelation that Brexit could see 7,000 trucks queuing in Kent, we started to wonder what this would actually look like on the ground. After all, Fatkin specialises in parking and infrastructure, and we like a challenge. We hope this simple visualisation brings some clarity to the situation.”

Founded in 2014, Fatkin is an emerging architectural practice based in West London and Cardiff that has worked on a number of town centre, university, station and hospital parking projects and cycle hubs, working with companies such as HUBER Car Park Systems, Morgan Sindall and Wilmott Dixon.

Besides car parks, the practice has explored how to reimagine the use of the urban kerbside in the form of parklets. During the London Festival Architecture 2019 the Fatkin team created the London Cablet by taking a decommissioned diesel black and peeling it open to reveal a public place for sitting, relaxing and playing.

www.fatkin.co.uk

Every picture tells a story…

1 It turns out 7,000 lorries take up a fair bit of room. If all 7,000 lorries were queued in a single file row they would go all the way up the M20 and halfway back again. This doesn’t leave much room for other traffic.

2 Alternatively, could the 7,000 lorries be parked up in a dedicated site? Well, they would need an area of land the size of: • 280 x Wembley football pitches, or • 4 x Bluewater shopping centres, or • 20 x Dover Castles.

The site is split into 40 cells of 175 lorries in order to provide firebreaks and simplify management. Provision of central amenities such as gyms, cafes, hotels, retail units, fuel stations, medical facilities, vehicle service garages and a wellbeing centre would serve the transient population of up to 15,000 people. Future provision of EV charging for lorries would require a local power station, perhaps off-shore wind or tidal. Each of the cells would be provided with welfare facilities including a social lounge, toilets, showers, laundry equipment and a canteen.

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What would it look like if this site was located just outside Dover?

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