“Absolute carnage”: Damning verdict from EU hauliers
Freight director says EU hauliers and transport companies are shying away from UK business because of the UK government’s insistence they pay thousands as guarantees to cover VAT and tariffs.
By Marc Allen, Maritime Direct UK.
EU hauliers and transport companies are being asked to stump up thousands of pounds as guarantees to cover VAT and potential tariffs, reports the Guardian. The guarantee requirement did not exist before Brexit and now EU companies who previously transported goods for small and medium-sized companies are backing away from UK-bound freight business.
Colin Jeffries of Key Cargo International, a British freight company, said: “We’ve got people that are trying to bring textiles in from Italy but we are being told there is no haulage availability on that. Nobody’s willing to touch anything because of these guarantees. In Poland, we’re trying to get masks in for PPE in the workplace and we can’t get anyone to bring them over.”
Jeffries, who has worked in the freight forwarding business for 24 years, said his business almost came to a complete standstill last week because of the overnight implementation of the new trade barriers.
Worryingly, data from German software company, Transporeon, shows a trend towards freight forwarders rejecting jobs that move goods from Europe to the UK. Its findings, gathered from analysis of the 100,000+ service providers it works with, reveal that the rejection rate for transport to the UK was up 168% on the third quarter of 2020 and has doubled in Week 1 of 2021.
