Expect four-hour delays at Dover but overall picture is positive – haulage boss

PA Wire

Lorry drivers may have to get used to queueing for four hours at Dover on busy days in the UK’s post-Brexit world but the overall picture is positive, a haulage industry boss says.

Miles-long queues of HGVs waiting to get into the crucial trade port have been a regular sight in the first weeks of 2022.

New checks that came into force at the beginning of the year have caused friction in Dover as well as across the English Channel in Calais.

On busy days this has meant long queues of lorries – visible from satellites – lining up along the A20 due to the Dover Traffic Assessment Project (TAP) being implemented.

Some queues are visible by satellite (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire)

Dover TAP, designed to stop the port town being clogged up with traffic, has already been put in place 20 times so far this year, compared to 69 times for the whole of 2021.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Rod McKenzie, executive director for policy and public affairs for the Road Haulage Association (RHA), said post-Brexit border checks “mean friction where none existed” but that the overall picture was positive.

“Any change is uncomfortable,” he told PA, adding: “That’s part of leaving the European Union and having to do new border customs checks.”

Mr McKenzie said that delays of three or four hours on busy days are to be expected going forward.

The Dover TAP is a temporary traffic management system which queues port-bound lorries in the nearside lane of the A20 to prevent Dover becoming congested with traffic (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire)

Asked if the overall picture of freight moving through Dover was positive, he said: “Yes, I think it is.

“A negative picture would be if the borders were not working and there was total chaos.

“What we have got is friction because there’s a check, but it’s not disastrous,” he added.

Last month the chief of Dover port Doug Bannister warned that the UK has just months to avoid huge disruption to holidaymakers when new EU rules come into force in September – despite knowing about the problem for two years.

As it stands, travellers would have to exit their vehicles to undergo biometric checks at the border – something that could cause massive delays in the Kent port.

The Government said at the time that it continues to engage with EU partners to ensure border arrangements work.