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Oelays ultimatum F‘r Dover customs
Page 5
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by Steve Geary
RT users at Dover have ?n HIM Customs and Excise even day ultimatum to prove the clearance system Incoming freight at the t before they take "further ion' against customs.
his week Dover Freight risultative Committee ii-man Mike Llewellyn told ' that this action could inle refusing to call out cuss officers to clear night ivalS and allowing the inning vehicles to pile up.
t is thought that if this was le it would take only 24 hours for Dover to be jammed solid.
The latest moves by the port are yet another chapter in the saga of complaints against customs practices at Dover which began last year and were thought to have been silenced when new procedures were introduced for clearance on April 1.
But Mr Llewellyn commented: "We realise that it would be very nice for the customs people to have one system operating in all the ports but they have got to realise that Dover is special.
"There is no other port with the flow of traffic that Dover has. Now we are coping with 1,500 lorries a day — and you can't compare that with ports like Harwich," said Mr Llewellyn.
Dover Harbour Board director of operations Don Soppitt has joined in with the port users: "We are hopeful that something wilt be done — we are resigned to the fact that the system is inappropriate to a ro-ro port," he said.
Now the most urgent items of freight such as perishable foods are taking an unpredictable length of time to clear.
And the clearance of freight is being held up by unpredictable happenings including sudden reduction of staff on clearing lines and close down of others, leading to the transfer of queues of drivers to other lines.
All these factors combine to give the impression that Dover's staff of Customs and Excise is not adequate to cope with the vast tonnages of freight coming into the port.
Mr Llewellyn commented that forwarders are now being faced with the prospect of extra charges for calling out officers to clear incoming freight.
It is obvious that the port users of Dover are being expected to pay high and rising charges for a completely inadequate service.
The freight consultative committee last year compiled a report showing the inadequacy of the service. Despite chances in procedures and claims from Customs and Excise spokesmen that there is no problem with clearance at Dover drivers are still being held up and hauliers are still incurring demurrage charges.