Irish trucks driving through UK to avoid Brexit red tape

DUBLIN – As the EU adjusts to its new relationship with the UK after Brexit, fewer trucks are pulling across the Irish Sea.

The route through the United Kingdom (an agricultural bridge lasting about 15 hours) has been an important and reliable artery for the transport of goods from Ireland to mainland Europe for decades.

But at the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December, trucks from the Republic of Ireland (which is still an EU member) via the United Kingdom and the mainland stood in through ports such as Calais, now staring at many paperwork and red tape in the face. .

In the first week of January, carriers such as Stena Line, Brittany Ferries and Irish Ferries added extra routes from Ireland to French ports such as Dunkirk, Cherbourg and Saint-Malo as well as Bilbao in Spain.

Three months after Brexit, port authorities, transporters and ferry operators are embarking on this new normal in Irish-European trade.

DFDS, the Danish shipping company, recently added a route between Rosslare Europort in the south east of Ireland to Dunkirk.

“In general, we’re too high on most of the days, ‘Aidan Coffey, route director at DFDS, told CNBC.

“There are currently three ships turning the schedules. It’s going to a fourth ship soon.”

The journey takes about 24 hours and is longer than it would normally take to drive through the agricultural bridge.

Laurence O’Toole is managing director of the logistics company O’Toole Transport, which transports various mixed loads on its trucks, including seafood. Before Brexit, most travel went through the UK to reach Europe, but now he is putting more trucks on these new routes.

“I would now say it was completely turned on its head,” O’Toole said.

For Rosslare Europort, the evolving dynamics of freight transport have increased activity at its berths. The port, more than 100 kilometers south of Dublin, is a popular place for ferries connected to ports in France and Spain.

Glenn Carr, general manager of Rosslare Europort, told CNBC that demand in the port had risen, but British freight traffic was down by about 43%.

“It’s still very worrying, the decline in the UK. But the total load by Rosslare Europort, UK and Europe, is up 51% for the first two months of the year. That kind of growth has never been in Rosslare not seen, “Carr said.

“Demand seems to be increasing. We are definitely in talks with potential other operators and other services.”

He said ship operators need to move fast to get routes ready. Usually a route is located in bed and gradually gets bigger over a period of 18 months before it reaches capacity, but most journeys are now at full capacity.

“It’s unprecedented, and certainly if they were talking to the shipping companies, they would never have seen a new service like this ever,” Carr said.

However, it is only three months into this new environment – while coronavirus shocks for trade are still being felt – and distractors are still adjusting. It also needs to be seen how much of the agricultural bridge traffic will eventually return in the coming months.

“But the talks are about further expansion (of direct routes), it’s not about any contraction,” Carr said.

Rosslare Europort has embarked on a 35 million euro ($ 41.3 million) investment plan to refurbish and expand port facilities to meet this demand. Works will last over the next four years.

In Dublin Harbor, operators expect the dock to reach a throughput capacity between 2030 and 2040. It has opened a consultation on what the long-term future after 2040 will look like there, as the construction of any additional facilities on the east coast of Ireland will take time. up to 20 years to design, build and implement.

According to O’Toole, these direct routes are not an overall panacea for the challenges that Brexit has brought to Irish cargo companies.

These voyages take longer, usually between 18 and 24 hours, and depending on which port a ferry facility is in, it can add more miles for the journey of a truck.

Trucks that land in Cherbourg, but with the destination in northern France, the Benelux countries, Germany or beyond, still have many kilometers, hours and fuel costs. Dune churches, meanwhile, are close to Calais, making a well-known environment for drivers of the agricultural bridge.

“(Direct routes) are more expensive and slower, which is never good in the transportation industry,” O’Toole said.

“It does avoid a lot of paperwork, but for our customers and for ourselves the cost has gone up. We try to get it from our customers. It’s not easy with Covid, no one has money to throw around, so we tried to keep everything as tight as possible. ‘

He said direct routes still could not compete with the efficiency of the agricultural bridge before Brexit.