Shifting capacities
British companies, driven by their fear of Brexit bottlenecks, are busy filling their warehouses. This has provided goods traffic between the UK and the continent with a bit of a fillip. In the meantime the mainland is experiencing declining demand for load space.
All Brexit controversies and debates seem to have entered a form of phoney war. The front lines have ossified and there is no way forward – or back. There is plenty of movement of goods across the Channel between the United Kingdom and continental Europe, however.
Fear of long border checks
In the first quarter of 2019 the transport barometer published by the IT enterprise TimoCom registered more than twice the number of truck deliveries to the United Kingdom than in the same period of the previous year. “British firms that depend on imports from abroad have increased their stockpiles of certain types of goods, to be prepared for a no-deal Brexit,” as TimoCom business analyst David Moog puts it. Many corporations are afraid that if a no-deal Brexit comes about, then long queues of lorries will form at the borders. This would be a particular disaster for companies operating just-in-time production processes. Other companies also fear a degree of supply uncertainty, especially concerning customs-clearance procedures. Germany, France and Poland are amongst those national markets registering the strongest export growth for cross-Channel goods flows.
The transport barometer data for the United Kingdom stands in stark contrast to that for the European mainland. A rather cooler overall economy has also had a rather substantial impact on TimoCom’s transport barometer. The first quarter saw the freight exchange register an average of 52 cargo transportation offers for every 48 freight space submissions. One year ago the ratio stood at 54 : 46.
Impact of truck tolls
Another factor causing the 12% decline in transport capacities is increased road tolls for lorries in Germany. According to TimoCom this development has made it a less attractive overall proposition for foreign hauliers to transport goods in or across Germany.
