Customs bonanza in '93
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by Juliet Parish • British industry could save £440m a year when border controls are lifted in 1993, according to HM Customs & Excise. In a report out last week C&E experts predict that British and continental operators will save £5.73m a year because driver accompanied loads will not be held up for customs clearance at British ports.
Only 1% of truck drivers will be delayed at the borders from 1 January, says C&E. Fiscal and regulatory border checks will be dropped. At present 25% of import consignments at Dover are delayed for an hour and 20% are delayed for two hours. C&E estimates that each hour's delay costs the haulier concerned £10 in driver's wages alone.
"The move will give operators a greater certainty of meeting their delivery times and therefore enable them to venture into just-in-time deliveries," says John Moscrop of C&E's Single Market Unit. "Customs clearance can take anything from 10 minutes to a few hours and I often hear of operators adding four, six or eight hours to a journey in case they are held up at the border."
Hauliers will also be freed of the burden of submitting community transit and import and export entries for EC work — about 10 million of these are submitted to C&E a year. "Now if there is a delivery from Birmingham to Spain all the driver needs to know is the address in Spain," says Moscrop.