But the problem is, transport companies still don’t know what to prepare for. “Anyway, we are not ready for January 1,” said Rod McKenzie, director of the umbrella organization of British transport companies. “It is mainly a matter of limiting the damage of a bad situation. We have to deal with far too much paperwork, of which it is unclear what exactly we need. That paperwork is linked to IT systems of which we do not even know whether works. It’s a cocktail for disaster. “
Because the government has only made serious preparations in the past six months, everything will arrive at the last minute.
Eight kilometer traffic jam
In addition, the port across the street, in Calais, conducted a test this week with new software that must be used to check all trucks arriving from Dover after 1 January.
In addition, customs officers in the French port city needed an average of 70 seconds per truck to check someone’s passport and to see what the load of the truck was intended for. And that already led to one traffic jam of eight kilometers to trucks in Dover, while the checks will soon be more extensive. Especially in the case of ‘no deal’.
Huge parking lot
In order to avoid those long traffic jams, the British government is at the same time busy with the construction of enormous parking spaces along the motorway in the area of Dover. Also next to the village of Mersham, they have been working seven days a week for several months on the construction of a concrete surface that should provide space for at least fifteen hundred trucks.
“In July, this was farmland with crops in it,” said Sharon Swandale of the Village Alliance, a neighborhood committee dedicated to preserving the greenery in the area. Only after the summer did the first bulldozers and cement mills enter the village.
“The county of Kent is the garden of England. It is incredibly green here, often as far as you can see. More and more is being built, partly thanks to Brexit. We think that is a very bad development”, says Swandale.
In addition, it will be a race against time to finish the parking lot on time. “With Brexit, it is constantly trying to run before you can walk. So I am not surprised that this also happens at the very last minute.”
Just over a month, then the new relationship is a fact. Whether the British are ready or not.
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