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More than 90% of UK operators will be left in the cold.
Hauliers across the UK will be returning to work today (11 February 2019) to discover whether they have been lucky in the “International Lottery” for one of less than 1,000 available haulage permits that will be required for them to send trucks to the Continent and Ireland in the event of a No Deal Brexit. Some hauliers received notification over the weekend, at about the time the results for the National Lottery were being announced!
With the UK scheduled to leave the EU single market on March 29 and the hoped-for Transition Period bogged down in Parliamentary no-man’s land, the Department for Transport has begun allocating the limited number of permits available to selected international road transport operators. In the absence of an alternative agreement, these permits would replace the “Community Licence” that currently gives unlimited access to all EU countries for UK operators. Official figures indicate that more than 11,000 HGV operators applied for a European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) permit, yet less than 1,000 were successful in their application.
As Pauline Bastidon, Head of Global & European Policy at FTA, which speaks for the logistics industry, comments, the discrepancy between the number of applications received and permits available is stark evidence of why a No Deal Brexit would be disastrous for the UK’s logistics industry:
“In the event of a No Deal Brexit, the only tool currently available to UK hauliers to access the European market is ECMT permits. The fact that permits would be available to less than 9% of UK operators means that more than 90% of UK operators will be left in the cold. As we have been warning for some time, the number of permits available under international rules would be totally insufficient to keep Britain trading effectively and shows just how vital it is that a deal is reached with our European counterparts.”
Only those operators that receive permits will be able to send their trucks abroad after March 29 unless other arrangements – such as the draft EU contingency measures for road haulage - are agreed before then. Even then, EU proposals would not offer the same coverage as existing arrangements and would cease to apply at the end of the year, in the best case scenario. Read more
Source: FREIGHT TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION
