No chance of a No-Deal Brexit now clashing with a Christmas freight uplift has been welcomed on the busiest port in the 海角视频.
Britain will now remain in the European Union until early next year unless Parliament ratifies Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s agreement sooner, the 27 member states have agreed.
The announcement from European Council president Donald Tusk followed a meeting of ambassadors, and looks set to pave the way for a potential general election in December, as Mr Johnson seeks to regain a government majority to pass his deal.
A Brexit “flextension” will be open until January 31. with the “decision expected to be formalised through a written procedure,” Mr Tusk said.
At Immingham, where DFDS Seaways is the largest operator, the run up to the latest deadline has not been as pressurised as that in March.
Andrew Byrne, 海角视频 managing director, said: “If we had gone out on a ‘no deal’ this week, it would have caused some problems with a seasonal uplift.
“A lot of that is starting now. Historically we have a busy November and a quiet December, but we all hoped we would not go out with no deal on October 31 – that would have been a bit more tricky, but shouldn’t be a problem now.”
It could have meant a completely new customs regime with extra checks and potential delays for vessels sailing from departure points in the 海角视频 and continental Europe.
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Plans under Operation Wellington had been drawn up for a three-phase haulier control procedure, culminating in potential motorway closures to hold port-bound vehicles. Earlier stages involved early communication with drivers and operators, before emergency parking locations were opened up away from the ports to eliminate bottlenecks.
More than £1.4 million of funding was also drawn down by Associated British Ports for extra hard-standing for vehicles in Immingham and Hull.
Looking ahead, Mr Byrne said: “I think we got everything and everybody in place , for whatever we needed to do. “The only thing we need to think about now as we push the deal out, is the shortening of the transition period, as that doesn’t move. If it goes to the end of January, that’s less than 12 months to do all the deals, with all the details, and we can only hope it doesn’t turn into Brexit Mark Two.”
When the original March 31 deadline neared, the terminal reached absolute capacity. Halloween hasn’t brought the same ‘horrors’.
“We haven’t seen it to the same extent,” Mr Byrne said. “We have definitely seen an increase in October, no question, but not to the same level of almost panic that we saw in March.
“There are two reasons, a lot of the traffic that came across in March is still here, a lot of stockpiling done at the end of quarter one is still sitting on stock, and didn’t need to be repeated. A lot of people have go money tied up in stock that has sat here for six months, we have seen an increase, but not to the extent we saw.
“Secondly, and we saw this in feedback from our Brexit event, companies are a little bit more relaxed and fatigued by the constant moving of the goalposts.”
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Retailers’ stock levels in relation to expected sales were at their highest on record in October according to the latest monthly CBI Distributive Trends Survey.
The latest spike in stock adequacy – the highest since the survey began in 1983 – followed another large peak seen in August. Rain Newton-Smith, CBI chief economist, attributed it partly to Brexit, with uncertainty also impacting ales volumes.
In response to the new deadline, a spokesperson for Associated British Ports added: “As ever, we are supportive of efforts being made to secure a deal to leave the EU. In the meantime, for ABP it is business as usual and we are focussed on our core work of supporting our customers and keeping Britain trading.”