Hauliers count losses as lorry queues grow in Kent after French port closure
Government triggers Operation Stack to hold trucks on motorway while exporters try to find routes to Europe
British hauliers and exporters were counting their losses on Monday after France closed its borders to freight traffic from the UK without notice on Sunday night as a precautionary measure against the spread of a new strain of the Covid-19 virus.
Trucks that failed to meet the 11pm deadline on Sunday began to back up outside the Channel port of Dover on Monday morning as the government triggered Operation Stack to hold lorries on the M20 motorway that serves the UK’s arterial freight route to Europe.
The Road Haulage Association said the queue was 17 miles long by 1pm and predicted it would probably get longer as drivers in northern Britain tried to return to the continent.
Manston Airport, near Ramsgate, would also be available as an emergency truck park capable of storing up to 4,000 vehicles, the Department for Transport said.
With Christmas approaching, the Food and Drink Federation said it did not anticipate that the border closure would cause immediate shortages in the shops if the restrictions were limited to 48 hours, as the French government indicated, but for individual operators the delays still caused painful losses.
Paul Jackson, the managing director of Chiltern Distribution, in Peterborough, who relies on import-export trade with the EU for about a third of his annual revenue, estimated the delay was costing his company more than £5,000 a day.
“The French decision just came completely out the blue,” he said. “We’d committed to six loads that have been cancelled; four of them had already been loaded. It’s all fresh produce — bakery products, vegetables — and pharmaceuticals.”
With cancellations already coming in for Tuesday, losses would mount, Mr Jackson added.
The company had explored alternative short crossings to Belgium and the Netherlands to bypass French controls, but discovered these were booked out to January 4.
Ian Baxter, who owns Nottingham-based Baxter Freight, said the delays were costing the industry “many millions of pounds every hour”, with his own trucks ensnared in the border chaos carrying clothes destined for shops in Europe.
Other operators found their vehicles were stranded in Europe. John Vincent, who owns fishing and haulage group Peche, which services fishing ports in Scotland and Wales, said he had wine loaded at Bordeaux and “no way of getting that lorry back”, while a consignment of UK-bound lettuce would be sacrificed in order to deliver shellfish through France to Barcelona.
The Scottish Seafood Association said it would be seeking compensation from the government for lost profits if goods failed to reach target markets in Europe in time for Christmas.
“People's livelihoods and jobs are at stake here,” said Jimmy Buchan, the group’s chief executive.
Ferry operator P&O said it stood ready to resume a full service between Dover and Calais “as soon as we are permitted to do so” but haulage groups warned it would take many days to clear inevitable delays, as EU drivers baulked at travelling to the UK to avoid getting stuck in queues over Christmas.
Philip Edge, chief executive of UK freight forwarder Edge Worldwide, questioned whether European truckers would risk entering the UK, deepening existing haulage capacity shortfalls. “Do we have the capacity over here, in terms of drivers, to pick stuff up? That’s not the case a lot of the time.”
Supermarkets already under pressure from sporadic panic-buying caused by new Covid-19 restrictions called on the government to introduce fast track “green lanes” for all fresh produce, but said they had sufficient stocks for Christmas.
However, Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium trade body, said any prolonged closure of the French border would be a problem as the UK enters the final 10 days before the post-Brexit transition ends on December 31.
Non-perishable goods industries were also affected. Peter Shaw, who owns medical equipment supplier CP Medical, said he had been relying on a shipment of safety needles now caught in Calais to build up essential stockpiles ahead of next year.
“Our products are critical. We have gone from one crisis to another. The truck left Poland a week ago but we heard this morning it was stuck in Calais. No one is sending trucks to the UK, not knowing whether they are coming back,” he said.
He added that there was a wider problem with supply chains of similar essential equipment, with areas such as surgical gowns and gloves running short already. “We are going back to where we were in March and April.”
More immediately, pharmaceutical company Pfizer said it was working with the government to ensure that the delays did not affect the delivery of its Covid-19 vaccine, by ship or, if necessary, by air.
“As with all our supply chain operations, we keep these routes under close observation to mitigate against delays,” the company said.