Coordinated action to mitigate the effect of a hard Brexit around the port of Rotterdam

The Port of Rotterdam Authority, the Municipality of Rotterdam, the Municipality of Vlaardingen and highways authority Rijkswaterstaat, are creating five new buffer parking sites. Trucks will be able to wait here temporarily if their customs documents have not been properly prepared for maritime crossings to the United Kingdom (UK), in the event of the country leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019.

The aim of the coordinated action is to minimise any extra delay resulting from additional customs formalities at ferry and shortsea terminals and to ensure freight traffic to the UK runs as smoothly as possible.

After all, additional customs formalities are required for so-called third countries. Additionally, more intensive passport checks and inspections by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority could mean longer processing times at terminals.

The temporary buffer parking sites are marked out on the map. In the unlikely event of this additional capacity being insufficient, the organisations have additional overflow areas in reserve. Moreover, Rijkswaterstaat has been discussing traffic control plans with all parties to make sure it flows efficiently. Of the approximately 54 million tonnes of freight that is traded annually between the UK and the Netherlands, around 40 million tonnes passes through the port of Rotterdam, and in particular via ferry and shortsea crossings.

As soon as Brexit is a fact, the Dutch sea ports will form an outer border between the EU and the UK and this will have major consequences, in particular for the processing of customs papers and passport control.

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