Delays At Dover & Calais Currently Impacting Road Freight

Delays are being experienced on all European road freight movements through the Dover/Calais ferry route at the moment.

HMRC’s Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) is currently down and many drivers have been waiting at the ports since early this morning, with no current idea when they will ship.

Bad weather is also believed to have contributed to the delays and there is also ‘rumours’ locally of a potential upcoming port strike.

The situation is currently a little confusing as Customs show the below information on their website:

GVMS Service availability

HMRC are aware there are issues with the goods vehicle movement service and our technical team are working to resolve them as quickly as possible.

If you do not have a goods movement reference, you can now proceed with alternative documentation, for example one of the following:

• transit accompanying document (TAD)
• movement reference number
• entry reference number
• declaration unique consignment reference (DUCR)

Westbound are monitoring the situation closely, although any import or export movements due to travel on the route today will likely be affected.