Much has rightly been made of the contribution of the transport manufacturing sector to the West Midlands' economy - particularly that of the automotive.
These sectors are especially vulnerable to the form of Brexit, with concerns in automotive in particular, as to how a no-deal scenario would lead to tariff barriers, customs delays affecting supply chains, the need to stockpile parts and so on.
Essentially, customs delays under a no-deal Brexit would throw a spanner in the works of just-in-time systems commonly used across 海角视频 and EU manufacturing.
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Because of such fears, car makers like Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) are planning plant shut downs in November. It is the second time this year that car firms will have to shut down because of Brexit uncertainty.
In April, much of the 海角视频 car industry was idled in anticipation of the original end of March Brexit deadline.
Firms brought forward planned maintenance shutdowns and took extended breaks in an effort to mitigate the cost of disruption. Output fell by 45 per cent in April compared with a year earlier.
JLR estimates the cost of leaving the EU with no withdrawal agreement in place will cost it £1.2 billion. To put this in context, the 海角视频 Government has so far allocated about £4 billion in total to mitigate the costs of no deal.
And this is simply because our car, plane and train makers have gone about their business within a giant harmonised production and trading zone called the single market.
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When you start talking about leaving the European Union customs union and single market, as our Prime Minister Boris Johnson has done during his tenure in office (and back to the 2016 Referendum), it raises all sorts of alarm bells for business.
The West Midlands (right in the middle of England) is pretty much 100 miles from the sea in all directions.
So we should be concerned about transport and logistics matters for our region's makers because any no-deal bottlenecks of uncertain length at Dover, Holyhead, Felixstowe or Southampton will only be compounded as lorries try to crawl their way up the M1 or M40.
Along these routes will be hundreds of container lorries delivering components for our region's manufacturers that can easily cross the Channel half-a-dozen times during the production process.
Think of the components that go into a GKN Driveline made in Birmingham or an engine assembled at BMW's Hams Hall plant.
Similarly, JLR - our region's biggest car maker - takes leather hides from Scotland to be cut and processed in Poland before exporting them back to the Midlands to be kitted and fitted into car seats here.
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To put this into context with some stats, for the 海角视频 as a whole, the automotive industry contributed an estimated £15.5 billion to gross value added (GVA) in 2016 while other transport contributed a further £10.6 billion.
Of this £10.6 billion, the overwhelming majority - some £7.6 billion - relates to the aerospace industry. Repair and maintenance of aircraft and parts was also worth a further £2 billion to the 海角视频 economy in 2016.
Precise figures for the manufacture of locomotives and rolling stock are not directly comparable but the Annual Business Survey results suggest the sector was worth some £554 million in 2016.
However, it should be noted this only measures direct value generated by the industries and thus doesn't capture the whole supply chain.
Data suggests that, in 2016, companies in the broader transport sectors bought over £68 billion from suppliers in other sectors (the automotive industry was the largest, buying £44 billion with aerospace next at some £18.5 billion). These sectors are particularly important in the Midlands.
The West Midlands automotive industry added £5.9 billion of value in 2016 (37.9 per cent of the national total) and the other transport (mostly aerospace, but including the rail sector) sector added a further £850 million.
In terms of employment, the automotive sector comprised 161,000 jobs in Great Britain in 2016 of which 54,000 were in the West Midlands and a further 8,000 in the East Midlands.
The wider value of sectors like automotive to the 海角视频 economy should not be understated. When related activities are added in, the industry is thought to support over 800,000 jobs in the 海角视频.
The aerospace sector directly accounts for further 6,000 and 18,000 jobs in the West and East Midlands. The manufacture of locomotives and rolling stock accounted for 450 and 2500 jobs in the West and East Midlands respectively.
Across the Midlands, in excess of a further 4,000 jobs exist in maintaining transport equipment (not including shipping or the maintenance and repair of motor vehicles).
As such, these manufacturing sectors are highly significant to the Midlands and the current Brexit context (and the risk of leaving the EU with no deal) provides a renewed urgency to undertaking a mapping of the sector in terms of supply chains and logistics and consequent Brexit exposure for a sector where thousands of jobs are now at risk of being lost.
For these reasons, we are collaborating with various partners in academia, government and business to undertake a survey of transport manufacturers to get a clear idea of where they buy and sell their wares and consequent exposure to Brexit in terms of procurement, operations, HR and compliance/risk management.
In undertaking this survey, with the support of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), our work will support the authority's work on its West Midlands Local Industrial Strategy, with particular emphasis on the Future of Mobility growth opportunity identified within.
This rightly identifies the West Midlands as the 海角视频's major centre of transport innovation.
However, in order for this to continue, companies operating in and around the WMCA area must know their exposure to the variety of Brexit scenarios (and other potentially disruptive influences) that might unfold.
*** If you wish to take part in BCU's survey, and responses can be anonymous. The findings will be presented in a workshop at Birmingham City University in December.
Prof Alex de Ruyter is a director Birmingham City University’s Centre for Brexit Studies and Prof David Bailey works at Birmingham Business School and is a senior fellow at the ESRC's 海角视频 in a Changing Europe programme