Dover customs strike again
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• Civil service unions are planning to escalate their Customs and Excise stoppages with a series of lightning 72hour strikes at nine separate south coast ports.
The stoppages are aimed at disrupting outgoing freight only and are bound to cause problems for hauliers.
Dover and Ramsgate were the first ports to be affected this week by the lastest action, with 72-hour stoppages beginning at midnight on Tuesday. Though Customs and Excise managers have been trying to clear the backlog, both Dover and Ramsgate warn of severe delays.
Russ Peters, chairman of the RHA's International Group, says the dispute will have a choking effect: "I don't see what the Customs unions hope to achieve," says Peters, "There will be no Government until 11 June, so they are not going to get any joy from anybody".
Between now and the election the civil service unions plan stoppages at Felixstowe, Harwich, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Weymouth and Newhaven as well as Ramsgate and Dover.
Graham Eames of Hargrave International said as we went to press that his company had not yet experienced any problems at Dover: "We shall be making arrangements to get round the stoppages, but you have to remember this is part of the normal working day for hauliers."
Christian Salvesen, however, said that only a trickle of lorries were getting out through Dover on Tuesday. The company has been trying to avoid the problem by rerouteing its vehicles through Folkestone.
Ferry companies operating from the affected ports have advised hauliers that if they are not pre-cleared or running empty they face delays. Both Sealink and Sally Line say it is too early to tell whether extra sailings will be necessary to clear the backlog of delayed hauliers.