Stuck On The M 20!

[ExSurveyor]

I have been receiving email updates and Webair seminars from HMG for over a year and I have never exported.

There has been a lot of support for exporters.

[FairTmiddlin]

Had a Zoom meeting of like minded Radio hams last night. One of my friends is working as security for H.M.R.C at Manston airport.

They have clearance at Manston. You can get a Kent ticket without clearance paperwork but once arrived at the site you have either a green ticket or a red ticket and are sorted by that,

Green ticket and Covid test. Paperwork checked and on your way to Dover

Green ticket no Covid test. Lane A army give quick Covid test whilst paperwork checked result comes through.

Negative Covid to Dover. Positive, Lane B Full test given wait 24 hours to 48 hrs for result if positive trailer parked. Truck sent with escort to Rochester and quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.

Red ticket . No clearance papers,  with Covid test. Lane C. Taken to HMRC for paperwork to be sorted 

Red Ticket no Covid Lane D. Quick test given, taken to HMRC for paperwork

Negative or positive test as above

 

[FairTmiddlin]

Having said paperwork in the previous post, it's not Papers per se . All electronic now Drivers are given a HMRC number all clearance is now centralised and available online to any HMRC depot.

[Vaughan]

21 hours ago, FairTmiddlin said:

Having said paperwork in the previous post, it's not Papers per se . All electronic now Drivers are given a HMRC number all clearance is now centralised and available online to any HMRC depot.

I am afraid that is not what it says in the papers this morning.  It may be possible to create your paperwork on line but it still has to be physically checked by Customs before being cleared.  There are no queues in the port of Dover, as all the trucks are currently overflowing the customs truck park at Ashford Waterbrook, waiting for clearance, while the ferries are running empty.

The Road Haulage Association is quoted as saying "Trucks are sat there for hours at a time and not able to pass go. It's no surprise to us. The systems they are using are untested".  The wait is at least 8 hours, at the last count.

There are photos of the long queue of truckers, standing outside in the rain, waiting for their papers to be checked. It seems no different now, to what it was like on a Sunday evening in Dover 30 years ago, where we all had to queue in the customs building, standing on two flights of concrete stairs, almost angle deep in other peoples' fag ends, while we waited for some surly little customs officer behind a window to take at least a quarter of an hour checking each set of papers before he most grudgingly stamped them.  And these are British customs officers, don't forget.  Checking goods leaving the country, not entering it.  Most nights, there were only 3 of them on duty in that building and you could expect to stand there for 3 hours at least.

Truckers were always treated like dirt and it seems they still are.

There is supposed to be a huge new customs truck park called the White Cliffs site in Dover, covering 50 acres but there are photos of that as well!  The first spades are only just going into the turf.  It is literally a "green field site".

They say it will be ready in late June.  Don't hold your breath!

[Islander]

Time to bring in customs officers from of the airports possibly but they may need retraining to understand the paperwork. We have, of cause, only had a few years to prepare.

Is it just too much to ask that one gov dept operate efficiently.

Colin  

[Vaughan]

I remember there was a time back in the 80s when almost all the French trucks had a sticker on the back of the trailer which said :

"Si vous l'avez, un camion vous l'a apporté"

If you have it, a truck has brought it you.

This applies to everything in your house, from the washing machine; to a table lamp; to a pair of shoes.  They have all been involved in several journeys by truck, during their manufacture and in their delivery to retail outlets.  When you get in your car to go shopping, I bet every item you buy in the supermarket has arrived in a truck ; sometimes involving 2 or 3 journeys between logistics hubs.

It is a huge and complicated supply chain which only gets recognised as  vital to our very existence, when someone throws a spanner in the works.

[Mouldy]

59 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

I remember there was a time back in the 80s when almost all the French trucks had a sticker on the back of the trailer which said :

"Si vous l'avez, un camion vous l'a apporté"

If you have it, a truck has brought it you.

This applies to everything in your house, from the washing machine; to a table lamp; to a pair of shoes.  They have all been involved in several journeys by truck, during their manufacture and in their delivery to retail outlets.  When you get in your car to go shopping, I bet every item you buy in the supermarket has arrived in a truck ; sometimes involving 2 or 3 journeys between logistics hubs.

It is a huge and complicated supply chain which only gets recognised as  vital to our very existence, when someone throws a spanner in the works.

I’ve had my HGV (LGV) licence since 1978 and have also spent hours waiting for customs clearance in less than favourable conditions, going to either the Republic of Ireland or Germany.  I spent 36 hours sitting on Dublin docks once due to someone whose mind was not on the job, forgetting to put necessary documentation into the ships bag and causing a delay whilst it was sent across on the next available ferry.  
I’ve worked in and around the logistics industry in both warehousing and transport as a driver and in management for most of my working life.  We have become used to the convenience of being part of the EU and the benefits that came with it.  ‘Just in time’ deliveries to car manufacturing plants will soon become ‘just a bit late’ and it’s not hard to imagine the closure of plants in Cowley, Gateshead, Derby, Swindon and others, when surmounting the difficulties caused by customs delays becomes too hard to be economically viable.

[Vaughan]

When you buy a pot of yoghurt, or perhaps a chocolate mousse, there is a strip of tinfoil on top, that you peel off to eat it.  This comes printed with the name of the product and a logo.  Sometimes butter will come wrapped in tinfoil, with the logo printed all over it.

There is a company in Thetford, Norfolk, who manufacture and print out this foil in huge rolls, about 5ft wide, with the little logos printed millions of times and weighing one and a half tons each.  I have delivered these rolls, probably hundreds of times, to food processing factories in several countries, sometimes 13 tons at a time.

That is what I mean by the supply chain!

 

[Wonderwall]

At least the fish are happy 🙄

[grendel]

of course we all have to believe what the newspapers print, i have a friend who works at customs in dover who is reporting no issues other than truckers without paperwork being turned away. newspapers will make a story to fit the pictures they have to show. i dont trust what is reported when i can pretty much look out of my window and see different

 

[andyg]

My friend is a haulage subcontractor for schenkers gmb at there Laindon depot in Essex. He has 14 vehicles of different sizes working on both there groupage and domestic operations. Their international freight forwarding ops have ground to a virtual hault,with over 1000 import deliveries waiting to be despatched. Incorrect paperwork is the problem. Export collection to be sent over to Europe have been suspended due to no space at the freight centre. He has had 9 vehicles stood down for Monday,paperwork seems to be a problem on both sides of the chanel. 

[grendel]

I seem to recall that last time I went through dover, the customs you had to clear before getting to the ferry was the french customs, and vice versa on the return, where you had the british customs check at the french end of the trip, (it was a few years ago now).