Customs strike
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• Dover faced all-out chaos this week as the port's customs officers intensified a go-slow work-to-rule and planned a 48-hour strike for Thursday and Friday.
Transit times through Dover, Europe's busiest road freight port, have been getting steadily worse in the past three weeks as the customs officers' work-to-rule has taken affect.
The officers and their union, the Civil and Public Services Association, are in dispute with their employer — the Government — over this year's wage claims and the two-day strike was only intended to involve the London and south-east region of the union.
Selective strikes are taking place around the country at different times. Two weeks ago the International Road Freight Office in Newcastleupon-Tyne, which issues international journey permits, went on a short-term strike in pursuit of the same pay claim.
"A stoppage at Dover would be absolutely catastrophic," says the Freight Transport Association, and it is advising its members to tune into local Kent Radio when approaching Dover to find out what is happening ahead of them on the road. Radio Kent gives the station's frequency wavelengths to motorists via motorway road signs.
The Road Haulage Association feared that the strike, which was being arranged as Commercial Motor