Lorries queuing in Kent Operation Stack

The Freight Transport Association has warned there is a danger of Operation Stack being triggered in Kent if French border authorities do not address the backlogs seen at Dover this weekend.

Holidaymakers and lorry drivers endured queues of up to 14 hours to embark ferries as the holiday season got off to the worst possible start. There were reports of chronically understaffed French border controls and passengers spending the night in their cars.

Natalie Chapman, head of policy for London and the south east for the FTA, told FPJ that freight tends to pass during midweek rather than at the weekend, but warned that if the problems continued over the coming days then imports and exports of fresh produce could be affected.

Operation Stack - a process used by Kent authorities to queue traffic on the M20 motorway in the event of disruption at Dover - is in danger of being implemented for the first time since last summer, when the migrant crisis and French strikes combined to cause chaos at Channel crossings.

'Of course we are sympathetic about the need for heightened security checks in view of the French attacks,' Chapman said. 'But we are particularly concerned about what could happen to freight by Thursday. Hopefully the French authorities will have got their act together by then or we could see the return of Operation Stack.'

Chapman said that the incident had 'given tourist traffic a flavour of what lorry drivers have been suffering' and called on drivers to be given more information in advance about how long they would be expected to wait.

The government is currently consulting on the creation of a lorry park that will help ease congestion on the approach to Dover, with the project due to be completed by next summer.

For highly perishable fresh produce, Chapman said a scheme was created to prioritise freight that could go off during a prolonged queue. 'We want government to look at whether that should be introduced again,' she said, adding that it would be disappointing if delays occurred at a time when British companies had a chance to increase exports due to weak sterling.

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