This week the French authorities are said to be preparing to apply the UCC properly and the volume of traffic is expected to reach more normal levels so the Dover-Calais crossing may well begin to see real problems emerging. Some issues are already being felt on the GB-NI routes with several reports of rising chaos. One in the Irish Times claims the Road Haulage Association have written to Michael Gove warning that supply chains are reaching breaking point.
The report says:
"The RHA said raw material supply lines from Britain had also been restricted due to the regulatory changes that followed the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of last year, and that factories had already reported serious supply chain issues, including failures to supply retail contracts.
"The trade body warned Mr Gove that introducing some of the world’s most complex customs processes with next to no training and implementation time and insufficient capacity left industry “one storm/Covid event/boat breakdown” away from having serious supply issues between the North and Britain.
“'This would result in shortages on [Northern Irish] supermarket shelves and factories being starved of materials,' RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said in the letter."
The Newsletter has seen the same letter and they headline it with: System for getting supplies to Northern Ireland may be five days from collapse due to Irish Sea border, hauliers warn Michael Gove
The BBC's Politics producer tweeted a picture of supermarket shelves in Dungannon and pictures of rotting oranges in Tesco's fresh food warehouse in Belfast:
Might explain why there aren’t too many oranges in Tesco Dungannon https://t.co/QBCRjRlIrW pic.twitter.com/1T4M1FLwVF
— Darran Marshall (@DarranMarshall) January 9, 2021
Sam McBride in The Newsletter - a Northern Irish publication - writes about the first week of the new 'border' and how NI will be profoundly re-shaped by Brexit. It should come as a warning to Gove and Johnson but we see nothing but complacency from them.
On the Dover/Calais crossing, Shane Brennan of the Cold Chain Federation has a long Twitter thread about the sheer complexity of what is being attempted within a very short time scale:
As @michaelgove admitted yesterday we are expecting significant disruption in our #trade flows with the EU in coming days. The fact he is willing to say this confirms what most of us feel, that problems are building. This thread is a summary of what I have learnt in the past week
— Shane Brennan (@ColdChainShane) January 9, 2021
He makes a key point. The new border isn't wholly in Dover, it's everywhere. Haulier's yards are now a 'border' having to refuse to carry loads for customers who are not prepared. I suppose the border is at the exporting customer, too. Customs agents are another 'border' - there are not enough and they're overworked. Vets are now a 'border' having to complete complex EHC paperwork and government agencies are now a 'border' as they have to issue the paperwork
Everyone has either got a new job, or one that is exponentially bigger than it was before Brexit - each one can stop or slow goods being shipped or delivered, he says. If all these systems and people don't work together seamlessly there will obviously be problems.
Brennan adds that the Border Operating Model issued in December is the UK government's idea of how they HOPE things will work. He says it's a "comprehensive, daunting and complex read" and it is. But he also has the same thing from the French authorities, too!
Kent Online reports one haulier saying Brexit red tape next week will cause a 'bloodbath' in Kent and Lord Rose, boss of Ocado says the costs of delays and difficulties will be passed onto the consumer. This might be the least of our worries in the next few weeks and months although Rose adds reassuringly, “You will see some short-term shortages but let’s be clear, there is not going to be a famine."
Well Hallelujah for that.
“Food will continue to come in, although at this time of the year 50-80%-plus of our fruit and veg comes in from Europe and beyond and a lot of that comes in through Dover on trucks."
Haulage firm boss Lorenzo Zaccheo, managing director of Alcaline UK in Lympne near Hythe, predicts the red tape will trigger a “bloodbath.”
Someone tweeted some pictures of a Sainsbury;s supermarket in Cambridge and asks if it's all beginning to fall apart:
Sainsburys, Sydney Street, Cambridge. No deliveries from wholesalers apparently?? Is it all beginning to fall apart? pic.twitter.com/Y9ifJbcJFM
— Ramplkev - 3.5% 🕷Protect others, wear a #facemask (@KevinRampling) January 8, 2021
Another person tweets about another Sainsburys supermarket in Luton:
One of two Sainsbury's in Luton this evening... The entire fruit and veg ailes are almost bare. pic.twitter.com/axpe9lU5qy
— Bryan|TelosDAC|#3.5%#EUnionist#Anti-Bonger (@RBryan275) January 8, 2021
Are these signs of things to come or is Sainsbury's particularly vulnerable? This week will tell.
