Hauliers seek clarity on COVID tests for UK-bound drivers

European haulage companies are seeking further information as they assess the likely impact on freight businesses of the new mandatory COVID-19 testing regime from this month for lorry drivers arriving in England from outside the British Isles.

The measure is set to be introduced from 6 April onwards in a bid to curb the number of infections of potentially vaccine-resistant variations of the virus. It will oblige drivers to take a first test within the first two days of their stay in England, then further tests every three days – although there is expected to be a two-week grace period prior to its full enforcement.

Robert Kleppers, commercial director of Jan de Rijk Logistics, whose trucks make more than 20,000 crossings to and from the UK annually, said that the majority of EU-UK traffic on the short straits Chennel crossing was headed for the London area, meaning drivers normally spend less than two days in England.

“For drivers going to other destinations, it will depend on the number of testing sites and where they are located in the country,” he told Lloyd’s Loading List. “As long as these are situated away from the ports, the risk of significant volumes of truck traffic building up, creating backlogs, is reduced

Jason Breakwell, commercial director of Wallenborn Transports, told Lloyd’s Loading List: “We’re waiting for the Department for Transport to verify what ‘two days’ means. Is it two calendar days or 48 hours? Or as Eurotunnel announced, the day of arrival plus two calendar days. Therefore, a driver arriving on Monday and staying in the UK after Wednesday would need to be tested before midnight on Wednesday. Hopefully, it is the latter (Eurotunnel’s calculation) as most of our drivers spend less than 48 hours in the UK during each trip.”

The Eurotunnel Freight website notes: “Drivers on a return trip from the EU will not require proof of a negative COVID-19 test to cross the border. The proof for the date and time of travel is the Eurotunnel Transport Ticket.”

Wallenborn’s Breakwell estimates that COVID testing of lorry drivers will extend transit times by at least an hour – longer if drivers have to deviate from their route to a testing facility or if they are queues.

“It would be easier if testing was available on the French side as very few inbound facilities have been set up so far in the UK. For example, there are none between Dover/Folkestone and London and the facility at Clacket Lane (on the M25 in Kent) is on the eastbound carriageway.”

He added: “Some drivers prefer to be tested before arriving in the UK to avoid the risk of testing positive and quarantining in the UK for ten days. The evidence from the last three months of testing in the UK is that very few truck drivers are COVID positive, probably because they are isolated in their cabs and follow hygiene measures.”

The UK government is also making it a legal requirement for all hauliers arriving in England to self-isolate in their cabs while they are in the country, unless they have to leave it for one of several specified reasons, such as the need to buy food.

Subdued UK-EU road freight volumes

The UK’s Office for National Statistics last month published official figures highlighting the extent that UK-EU trade collapsed in January, including a more than 40% drop in UK exports to the EU and a 29% fall in imports from the EU as traders and their freight and logistics providers adjusted to new post-Brexit trading arrangements and challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Various freight industry sources have highlighted that although UK-EU road freight vehicle numbers may have recovered towards their pre-Brexit levels, the numbers of trucks travelling empty from the UK to the EU had risen sharply. For example, last month the Road Haulage Association estimated that trucks were going back to the continent about 40% empty, compared to around 20% empty pre-Brexit.

UK road freight vehicle movements to and from mainland Europe via the key ‘short-straits’ Dover-Calais and Eurotunnel crossings in March remained down by an estimated 20% below their levels last year, as companies continue to adjust to the new post-Brexit trade arrangements and changes related to the pandemic.

Although the volume of ‘short-straits’ Dover-Calais and Eurotunnel crossings may still be down by as much as 20% below their levels last year, the experience has been different for companies in different sectors of the market, with some picking up business from others that have withdrawn from the market.

Gained new traffic

Commenting on the state of the cross-Channel road freight market almost three months since the new UK-EU trading regime took effect, Kleppers said: “We see a recovery in volumes which are back to or above pre-Brexit volumes. I don’t know if this is representative of the market as a whole. Jan de Rijk Logistics has gained a lot of new traffic as some companies no longer operate on cross-Channel routes or are struggling with customs clearance paperwork.”

He said while he couldn’t quantify how many firms fell into these categories, Jan de Rijk was “getting daily requests from new parties seeking a solution for cross-border transport.

“A common refrain from shippers is that their previous supplier was having trouble with the paperwork, lacked the ‘infrastructure’, or was not willing to invest time and effort to set this up properly. Over the past weeks we serviced a couple of dozen new customers and are adding new ones daily.”

Breakwell said that other than a few big names temporarily suspending services in January, (notably European logistics giant DB Schenker) he was not aware of hauliers abandoning the UK market.

“A lot of Irish trade is now avoiding the UK, and ferry operators have added more direct capacity from/to France and Ireland. This has reduced demand for cross-Channel capacity,” he noted.

“Overall volumes from UK via the Channel ports appear to be lower than normal, but our volumes this month are approximately 5% higher than in March 2020.”

Two-week grace period

As reported today, fines on hauliers whose drivers fail to take a COVID test when entering England from outside the UK and Ireland will not be imposed until 19 April under plans to offer a two-week grace period, The Times reports.

UK Border Force staff have been told not to enforce fines for the first fortnight of the new testing regime, the newspaper reports, quoting a source that said: “There’ll be a two-week grace period – so it comes in on 6 April but for the following two weeks, if a haulier does not get tested, they will just get ticked off. Only after that they’ll get fined.”

It is understood that the delay in imposing fines, which will be up to £2,000, is to prevent penalising foreign lorry drivers that may need more time to adapt to the new testing requirements – which was only announced a few days ago – for example, because of language barriers, the newspaper noted.