Shipping From France To UK More Costly, Complex Due To COVID, Brexit

The cost of moving freight from France to the U.K. quadrupled last week due to the effects of Brexit as well as the more contagious new strain of COVID-19, a report from Bloomberg says.

In the last week of 2020, the spot rate for last-minute shipments crossing the English Channel hit over 6 euros per kilometer ($4.56 a mile) for a full truckload, up from an average of 1.50 euros to 3 euros, the report says.

Also, some individual firms are charging as much as 10 euros per kilometer, Bloomberg reports, citing data from Transporeon, a global logistics platform.

The heightened rates are spawned from the chaos currently roiling British ports, with France having closed the border in order to hopefully curb the aforementioned new, more contagious strain of COVID-19. That led to a pile-up of thousands of trucks on both sides of the English Channel, with more rejected cargo by shippers as they wanted to avoid getting trapped in transit over the holidays.

Now, after four days in the new year, the pile-ups have begun to dissipate as France relaxed the controls over the border. The freight rejection rate lowered, but was still 79 percent higher than the third-quarter average, Bloomberg reports.

According to truckers, this kind of chaos could continue as parties continue to adapt to the new trading terms from Brexit as the U.K. left the European Union (EU). Higher spot rates are likely to continue, although analysts didn’t know for how long, according to Bloomberg.

The Brexit deal, reached in the last weeks of 2020, intended to set down firm rules on what would happen once the U.K. left the EU. The deal included provisions where the relationship between the two entities would be more fragmented, and Britain would be able to depart more readily from EU regulations. However, if the EU lifts regulatory standards and the U.K. doesn’t, the EU will be able to levy penalties if there’s some danger of economic harm.