Customs IT meltdown adds to long delays at Channel crossings
UK customs officials are battling to resolve an outage in a key post-Brexit IT system, with drivers complaining that the malfunction is adding to long delays for freight traffic trying to cross the Channel.
A surge in Easter tourist traffic and reduced sailings from Dover, where several P&O ferries are still out of commission after the mass sacking of crew members, are combining with delays at customs to create havoc on the roads into the port, with parts of the coastbound M20 motorway in Kent turned into a temporary lorry park as HGVs wait to reach France.
Haulage industry insiders have put part of the blame for the gridlock on the week-long outage of one of the government’s new trade portals, the goods vehicle movement service (GVMS). It first experienced problems on 30 March and has not been available for use by traders and hauliers since the following day. Drivers are being warned it may not be up and running until Monday.
GVMS, which was developed by and is the responsibility of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has been suffering a systems outage since it was temporarily taken offline during an update to another government customs system, handling import and export freight, known as Chief.
Ciaran Donovan, a driver based in the UK who regularly moves goods back and forth between Britain and the continent, said he was unable to use the GVMS portal to get the goods movement reference (GMR) number – a barcode – required to leave the UK last Wednesday. “I had to cancel a job out to Paris on Thursday, which was annoying,” he said.
GVMS users trying to access the service have been notified on at least two occasions over the past week that the system would soon be operational again. However, those dates have come and gone and the
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