Most UK-based international road freight hauliers not ready for the new international trading processes required from 1 January when the UK leaves the European Union’s single market and customs union.
In a survey conducted between 8th and 14th December among the 6,000 SME and larger haulage company clients of digital road freight specialist Haulage Exchange, only 3% of respondents said their firms “are totally prepared” for the new UK-EU trading arrangements – with 84% requiring more clarity from government on border legislation changes, for example.
Nearly 1 in 4 of the 32 UK haulage firms that responded said they had already lost business due to Brexit.
But the survey revealed some of the confusion that continues to surround the transition of the UK from EU rules. For example, two out of every three (66%) respondents stated that they are not prepared to present the Safety and Security Declarations at customs – as they assumed these documents were the responsibility of the exporter or importer instead of the haulier or courier.
With the EU and UK’s haulage industries deeply connected, clear guidance is by far the biggest thing missing from the Brexit transition process where most hauliers are concerned, the report said. While the majority want clarity on changes to border legislation, almost half (47%) state that they simply need more time to get the necessary admin done.
Customs remains a sticking point
Nearly 3 in 4 haulage companies (72%) believe that they will be negatively impacted by customs changes following the end of the transition period. Alongside their expectations of harmful customs changes, a large proportion of hauliers don’t feel equipped to deal with them – 62% believe that they need to be more prepared for changes to custom checks when exporting and importing goods to the EU. Staggeringly, a further 28% of these companies are ‘not at all’ prepared for the upcoming customs changes, the study’s authors noted.
Among other key findings, just 12% of respondents stated that they’re sufficiently prepared, with 9% of these stating that they have invested heavily to ensure all is in place and understood. And just 13% of haulage respondents have trained their hauliers and couriers to fill in the Safety and Security Declarations themselves. A further 13% will have these declarations filled in manually by admin staff on behalf of the hauliers, and 9% have implemented technology software to automatically fill these declarations.
Asked what changes they believe will most impact their company after 1 January 2021, increased waiting times at the border (75%) and more time spent on pre-crossing admin (66%) are the changes that most people expect to have an impact day-to-day. Half expect higher tariffs to be imposed on goods; 44% expect less access to European goods; 41% were concerned about changing licensing and registration requirements; one on four (25%) were concerned about having less access to European staff; and just 6% said they do not believe they will be impacted.
Asked what their company needs to make the Brexit transition more manageable, “hauliers are seeking additional clarity and support for their companies, as well as more time to complete the required admin”, the study noted. More clarity on border legislation changes from the government was cited by 84% of respondents; nearly half (47%) said they would benefit from more time to make the legislation changes and get the required admin in order; 22% said additional financial support to implement new software technology would be helpful; additional staff support was listed by 19% or firms; and just 3% said “nothing, we are totally prepared”.
Sam Wilkinson, Chief Revenue Officer at Transport Exchange Group, commented: “With the upcoming Brexit transition deadline, our focus is to ensure users of our Freight Exchange platforms, Courier Exchange and Haulage Exchange, can continue to carry goods to and from the EU without disruption. According to our survey, delays at ports and paperwork are front of mind for carriers. To ensure they can be prepared and avoid delays we are working with industry experts to provide educational content that will be signposted directly from within our platform.”
Sam Tyagi, CEO of digital customs clearance and document management platform KlearNow, said: “It’s abundantly obvious that as of right now, there simply aren’t enough staff employed at UK borders to handle the increase in workload brought about by Brexit. There will be an anticipated five-fold increase in (UK) customs entries with Brexit, leading to as many as 200 million extra customs entries.
“Our fear is that this will quickly lead to a two-tier system with priority given to larger importers who spend more on landing their goods at the expense of smaller businesses and their customers. Without digitization and automation – even if the extra staff are trained and recruited by January – the extra burden and stress will hit those on the frontline the hardest.
“Customs clearance is so often the bottleneck in international supply chains. It’s a critical function but it has failed to keep pace with technological innovation. An alarming percentage of customs entries are still processed with manual data entry staff. As a result, customs clearance is already slow, opaque and prone to error.”
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