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The build-up of Brexit stocks is causing 10-mile truck queues and delays of up to five hours in Calais, it has emerged as hopes for a trade deal fade.
Sources close to the president of the Hauts-de-France region said there had been 50% more heavy vehicles on the access roads to the French port and the Eurotunnel in the last three weeks.
“November and December are always busy months, but the main cause is extreme warehousing because companies are trying to get goods to the UK before January 1,” the source said.
“Normally we have about 6,000 trucks, but now there are about 9,000. It shows the extreme consequences of Brexit, whether there is a deal or not. Trucks have to slow down along the A16 back to Dunkirk with delays of up to 17 km. “
The delays at the English Channel crossing are causing serious problems in the UK. Honda and Jaguar have had to halt production temporarily due to parts shortages, and it emerged on Friday that Ikea had been beset with complaints over what it called “operational challenges” as shipments of its flat-pack furniture fell. they stop at clogged ports.
Eurotunnel said it believed delays on the British side would continue for the next three weeks. Its contingencies center on the worst-case scenario of a no-deal Brexit involving up to 7,000 trucks queuing in Kent.
Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that they are unlikely to reach a post-Brexit trade deal by Sunday.
Hauts-de-France leaders have been planning Brexit congestion since the first no-deal threat in 2018, when regional president Xavier Bertrand delivered a furious speech in the European parliament warning of a “dark scenario.”
French authorities calculated at the time that a two-minute delay at the port or the Eurotunnel walkway would generate queues of 27 km on each side, so slow queues of 17 km will be interpreted as an achievement in some sectors.
Queue traffic is also quickly caused by security incidents, with the continuing problem of migrants trying to board truck trailers.
The delays have been accompanied by long collapses in the Eurotunnel, caused in part by a reduction in the number of ferries due to Covid and the number of empty trucks returning to the mainland after their warehousing deliveries. Almost every day for the past two weeks, queues have formed, sometimes going back at least five miles.
“We are seeing several hundred trucks above forecasts on weekdays,” a Eurotunnel spokesman said. Recent figures from the company show that traffic increased 11% from last year in November.
Eurotunnel said the contingency plans, also modeled from 2018, meant they could move traffic to trains quickly. “We expect this to be the case for the next three weeks, with some declines as we get closer to Christmas and then we leave in the first week of January,” the spokesperson said, adding that there would be fewer trips than usual due to travel restrictions. Covid.
“Many companies have said that their production during the first two weeks will stop due to the nervousness of what is coming, so that will have an impact and we also believe that the authorities are going to be lenient in the first days after January 1. “.
The drive to build up stocks is due to the fact that customs, regulatory and agri-food controls will be introduced with or without agreement because the UK is leaving the single market. More disruptions are expected over the weekend in Kent with a live test of Operation Brock, the no-deal traffic contingency plan for the M20, implemented on Friday night.
The UK hopes to mitigate the impact by gradually introducing controls over six months, but companies have raised concerns that customs software and special Brexit e-passports for international freight drivers entering Kent are not ready in time for Brexit day.
A House of Lords committee wrote to Michael Gove on Thursday to tell him that he was “not sure that all necessary technological, physical and wellness arrangements will be implemented in time to avoid or mitigate disruptions.”
It raised concerns expressed by software experts that some key customs systems are only activated at the end of the month, while others are still under development and testing.
In the letter, Sandip Verma, chairman of the EU subcommittee on goods, criticizes the government’s “default expectation” that “everything will be ready”, which is “reflected in the worrying lack of contingency preparations”, including the impossibility to get all merchants ready, including SMEs that cannot afford customs brokers.
