As if things weren't bad enough..

"Exporters to the EU face 7,000-truck-long queues in Kent and two-day delays to trade after the Brexit transition period ends, the government has warned.

Imports will also be disrupted in January, according to a letter from cabinet minister Michael Gove to the freight industry, seen by BBC News.

It also raises the prospect of a winter spike in Covid-19 leading to absences of port and border staff.

The disruption is assumed to build in the first two weeks of January, and could last three months, or longer should France rigorously apply Schengen passport checks on hauliers at Dover and the Channel Tunnel.

The government says this is not a prediction but an illustration of what could be reasonably expected."

Covid raging, new restrictions, the end of the furlough scheme, redundancies, abysmal government leadership, Brexit chaos as above, winter approaching, no vaccine, Brexit approaching, no deal. No hope and no wonder

Buckle up, this is going to be a very bumpy ride and I really do fear a second wave of panic buying and shortages

 

Would you say you are a glass half full kind of person?

 

Our government only deals in worst case scenarios. We've been warning about this at work for months, talk about ostriches. Because all it takes these days to solve problem is a pinch of vitriol and patriotism and the issues fixed.

 

According to the Cabinet Office document, in its reasonable worst-case scenario, there may be "maximum queues of 7,000 port bound trucks in Kent and associated maximum delays of up to two days".

You also missed out the part of the reason for the letter, in that the majority of the haulage industry have failed to prepare by getting their documentation upto date and to use the coming months to correct that to avoid the above.

Edit: To be clear not blaming the haulage industry just adding context as the points above were missed in the OP.

 

If only somebody had mentioned this during the brexit campaign,,,,,,oh, hold on a minute!!

 

You mean the system which didn't work for hauliers and the haulage industry made the government aware of this? Let's blame hauliers now? We're getting down that list quickly who's next butcher, Baker, candlestick maker?

 

Project fear...

No doubt it’ll be the fault of remainers.

 

Or single parent families!

 

Think those who voted remain have already been blamed for unpatriotic thoughts, it meant the government couldn't get the best deal. Well in their world where dear Leader can't do anything wrong.

Blame the hauliers indeed!!!

 

It's common knowledge single parents have colluded with the French about fishing policy for years!

 

You’re just not BELIEVING hard enough!!!

 

Exactly this, believe hard enough and even your sh*t will come out red, white and blue.

 

Does this mean my unicorn will be arriving late?

 

I'm afraid your unicorn has been substituted. You're now getting a Vera Lynn CD and a tin of Spam, though we can't yet provide a delivery time.

 

And if they don't have any issues with trucks having the correct permits to enter France, there is a major shortage of suitable pallets in the UK that reach the ISPM15 standard....

 

No I’m not blaming the Hauliers at all.
I was just adding context that the OP left out.
The fact that it was a worse case.
The fact that it was a message saying let’s get prepared instead of waiting.

 

Used to travel (tour) multiple times per annum to Europe with a band with a lot of gear...P.A, lighting, instruments in the 70s (pre-EU Schengen). We had multiple carnets listing every item even individual leads ( power, microphone, instrument leads spare lamps etc) , description, value , serial numbers where applicable. This ran to several pages, often more complicated than a large HGV carrying a single bulk content. A couple of times HMG Customs and excise (only ever at Dover) made us open flight cases to check contents. Once the French stopped us just outside Calais for a perfunctory check of our paperwork but that was only a couple of minutes delay whilst they had a quick look in the back of the truck and we were back on our way (to Germany)

Remember, this was pre computer I.T. as well so everything was paper based with lots of rubber stamps At the border you had to disembark, queue at customs to have the carnet stamped to exit a country and then cross the road to queue at the next country customs to have the carnet stamped on entry. This happened at EVERY border within the EU. So we used to cross more than one border when travelling to Germany for example.(sometimes) The same had to be done on the return journey . Never in that time did we, (or any of the HGV drivers we used to mix with) ever experience days of delays and thousands of lorries queueing.

Before anyone says the traffic volumes were much lower this is mitigated by the following....
Computer systems will remove much of the paperwork involved
There should be only one border process...entering/exiting Schengen from UK rather than every single border within EU
All HGV traffic used to travel via ferry but we now have the tunnel which is faster and can shift far more vehicles than ferries alone.

I cannot understand, therefore, given the above why Customs checks, which have always existed, should be more onerous than they were pre EU Schengen. If the paperwork is in order like ours was, bearing in mind any modern IT system based should enable advanced 'pre-booking' and sealed cargos for many loads, it should in no way cause the sort of holdups and delays being reported. I don't remember rotting fruit and veg and mouldy meat , poultry and fish piling up at the ports!!

 

It’s what they voted for let em enjoy it.

 

Sunlit. Uplands.