richard burnett is the chief executive of the road haulage association.lly appreciate your time this morning, an incredibly busy period for you and the ban on vehicles entering france of course simply adds to that. is it possible to assess yet what impact this is having on the movement of lorries that would have been travelling from the uk to france over this period, and vice versa? it is an evolving situation so at this point in time we don't have absolute clarity. we know the port of dover was cleared last night and eurotunnel was also clear, so we are seeing a build up this morning of vehicles that have beenin this morning of vehicles that have been in the uk probably prior to the weekend and over the weekend that have tipped and are beginning to make their way back to europe. so this will be a building and evolving picture over the next 48 hours. i think in terms of flow from europe into the uk as well, we need to assess and understand what that looks like, but the retailers are being very reassuring in saying we we re being very reassuring in saying

rod mckenzie is the managing director of policy & public affairs at the road haulage association.ng. iwould be grateful if you would bring us up to date with what your latest assessment is from the scene there in dover? good morning. chaos, in one word. the government has said the borders are open, but actually they are not. unfortunately, that message, having gone out, a lot of lorry drivers have started heading for the ports again. in fact, as your correspondent has just been saying, the testing regime has not started yet. without that starting, the borders can't effectively open for traffic heading back to france. what we have got this morning is very, very angry truckers in dover, some of them, i suppose, we know have been involved in shouting with police and a few scuffles. they are tired, frustrated, desperately want to get home for christmas. very, very inadequate food provision for them. in fact, the best food provision they have had has been from a group of seek restaurant tours, who provided them with curry last night. we have not had enough food, information. most of th

we've had a statement from the road haulage association saying no contingency planning was put in placeed their borders, as have other european nations, is because they are very worried about the mutant version of the virus. it spreads 70% faster than the other version, the first version of coronavirus that landed here. what the lori max drivers are saying and what the haulage association is saying is we are ina haulage association is saying is we are in a vicious cycle. these guys can't keep clean, they are running out of hand sanitisers, they do not have sanitary wiping and they cannot wash their hands. so this is becoming a cycle. what we also heard from priti patel this morning was that the key to breaking this deadlock and these talks are going on between the government and the french government, is trying to introduce an effective testing regime. the problem is there are still no details about when that testing regime would be put in place and who it is that is going to be dispensing and monitoring those tests. as you know, the talk this morning was about the lateral flow test. al

next, this is a representative of the road haulage association.f the illogical things about all this is drivers are lone workers. they are in a cab on their own. they sleep on their own, they eat their food on their own. so they're not incredible vectors of disease. so the french decision looks over—the—top at the best of times. these pictures are from earlier today — miles of parked lorries on the m20 motorway. there are also hundreds of lorries in this truck park. others have just had to stop wherever they can. many drivers have been sleeping in their cabs while they wait, and the haulage assocation says they've been offered one cereal bar each. let's look at the significance of dover. this map, based on 2018 figures, shows you the annual lorry traffic and share of eu trade of all the major ports in the uk. as you can see, dover is by far the largest. more than 2 million lorries pass its port, and at least 75% of its trade is with the eu. that's much more than any other port in britain. in other words, dover is crucial for trade between the uk a

$750.00 so there will be a small pause but that is when the new teething problems as the road haulage association expects will start to bite. a deal has been arranged to secure freedom of movement on the border between spain and gibraltar avoiding a so-called heartbreaks it for its residents british territory wasn't included in the new u.k. e.u. trade deal but its government and spain have reached a last minute interim agreement there were fears of a lack of a deal that could have caused disruption including for those who work across the border from that. murali is a former aide to the u.k. sector of state for ex thing the european union is all they both sides have managed to avoid gibraltar sovereignty issue this time the dispute will resurface again in the future. i think there will be a big sigh of relief from gibraltar this is a country or region the vote 96 percent to remain in the european union around 50 percent of their workforce come in from space so i think ensuring fluidity of the border between the 2 is important i think the practicalities mean the gibraltar will remain plot all shake

the road haulage association warned of the devastating effect of the trvael ban on supply chains that under pressure from brexit and christmas stockpiling. the prime minister will discuss the growing crisis at an emergency cobra meeting later today. france has now suspended all travel links, including accompanied freight lorries, with the uk for 48 hours. the move means means no driven freight lorries orferry passengers will be able to sail from the port of dover for the time being. nations including germany, italy, belgium, the irish republic, turkey and canada are suspending uk flights. the measures vary and are initially short—term. an eu meeting on monday morning will discuss a co—ordinated response. coronavirus cases in the uk rose by 35,928 yesterday, nearly double the number recorded the previous sunday, figures show. it comes as health secretary matt hancock warned that a new variant of the virus was getting out of control. the prime minister, borisjohnson, is now set to chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee, cobra, to address the mounting coronavirus crisis.

patel, says 650 lorries are backed up on the m20, with another 873 in a lorry park, and the road haulage associationrs have been offered one cereal bar and toilet facilites are difficult. the french and british negotiations are focused on the possibility drivers will have to undergo regular coronavirus testing. here's theo leggett. seemingly endless queues of parked up lorries stretching for miles along the m20 this morning. there's simply nowhere for them to go. the french border remains closed, the eurotunnel terminal is shut and deserted and in dover, some traffic was coming in on ferries from france but nothing was going the other way. hundreds of trucks now sit in this giant lorry park, in what used to be manston airport, while others are waiting wherever they can find space. this polish driver was among hundreds waiting for news. it's a disasterfor me, you know? it's the first time i'm here in the uk and, like a driver, and it's... it's terrible. as i said, if i knew one day before that... hey, guys, idon't know, europe, uk, border will close in one day — i would never have come here. do you t

kingdom through calif say they fear for their lives as they're being attacked by migrants the road haulage association says that migrants are becoming more desperate with the end of the briggs it transition period nearing on lorry driver filmed this video showing men trying to get into the truck ahead of his own one of the men hurled a projectile at his vehicle and spoke to greg west the driver who made the video about the situation in cali. coming off on to the motorway. not overly secure when you get further into the charmed term set up comes more secure people are trying to come across a child. we call them immigrants. though i tried very many different tactics to actually for. some time the success was generally foreign parts are heading into the direction of calif varick and make themselves as small a part of as much as possible the systems that are fitted within the channel tunnel actually make it much more harder because they can be detected sniffer dogs special . hear smell the safe conceal themselves inside the truck is an opportunist and there is a feeling of desperation of these people so.

next, this is a representative of the road haulage association. 0ne one of the logical things about allis drivers are lone workers. they are in a cab on their own. they sleep on their own, they eat their food on their own. so, they're not incredible investors of disease. the french decision looks over the top at the best of times —— incredible vectors. these pictures are from earlier today — miles of parked lorries on the m20 motorway. there are also hundreds of lorries in this truck park. others have just had to stop wherever they can. many drivers have been sleeping in their cabs while they wait, and the haulage association says they've been offered one cereal bar each. let's look at the significance of dover. this map, based on 2018 figures, shows you the annual lorry traffic and share of eu trade of all the major ports in the uk. i can't show you the map at the moment. dover is by far the largest — more than two million lorries pass its port — and at least 75% of its trade is with the eu, much more than any other port in britain. in other words, dover is crucial for trade between th

next, this is a spokesperson for the uk's road haulage association.ing, when as chris morris was reporting, there is this mountain of red tape that we have not had to do for 50 years or so that we now have to get our heads around. and the shocking lack of clarity we have had from the government on this is really worrying. northern ireland will be treated differently to the other parts of the uk, and it's still unclear how this will work. no better guide to this aspect of the story than the bbc‘s john campbell in northern ireland. he tells us... so if a deal is done, that means companies won't have to pay tariffs on goods moving between northern ireland the rest of the uk, but there will have to be checks on those goods from the beginning ofjanuary. and businesses say the system isn't ready. they're calling for an extra adjustment period. here's chris page in belfast. at northern ireland's ports, including at belfast portjust across the water there, new border control posts will need to be built to carry out checks of, for example, products of animal o

rod mckenzie is managing director of policy & public affairs at the road haulage association.th no deal so far, as far as future trade is concerned, it seems your members are trying to cut the number of possible journeys there might be injanuary by stocking up now or actually trying to take more goods over there. hello. clearly, faced with a crisis and this is a crisis, what they do is the best possible contingency they can. so what we are seeing at the moment is a lot of businesses like supermarkets stocking up on things that are not perishable, that they can that are not perishable, that they ca n store that are not perishable, that they can store for a long time, and part of the reason for that is to avoid paying tariffs on those products if there is a no deal. but deal or no deal, no one should be in any doubt that there is a huge amount of red tape paperwork that needs to be cut through, and if you make one mistake, theoretically, you could be stopped at the border and held up. clearly, if you are in a queue, that will make it even more broad immaculate —— more problemati

for more on this, i'm joined by the chief executive of the road haulage association, richard burnett.o much forjoining us. france, we have heard, is about to ease restrictions. from what we understand about these new rules, does this mean that your drivers cannot cross the english channel as long as they have a negative test equipment my understanding and again we are... my understanding and we are waiting for clarity from the uk government, we understand this will probably lead to a covid test. we are hoping for a lateralflow probably lead to a covid test. we are hoping for a lateral flow test which is much quicker. a pcr test ta kes too which is much quicker. a pcr test takes too long. but even with a lateral flow tests, we have a sniffing a number of drivers we need to get back over to europe over the next few days. i guess the point with this is it will take us probably into christmas day and boxing day to repatriate what we estimate will be more like 8000-10,000 estimate will be more like 8000—10,000 vehicles there we need to get back into europe over the next few days. that's th

let's speak now to the managing director of the road haulage association, rod mckenzie.ibly somewhere else, trying to get across the channel and many are european drivers trying to get home for christmas. morale is poor. kent cou nty for christmas. morale is poor. kent county council offered each of them one cereal bar yesterday, which is a poor effort in terms of maintaining morale and spirits. there has been confusion about many how lorries are waiting to get across. grant shapps said about 170 last night and then the government saying closer to 1000. what is your estimate of how many are waiting to cross? the grant shapps estimate is clearly wrong. the figure is closer to around 1000. it is hard to tell because you can count trucks parked on the m20 but not the trucks parked up on surrounding roads and towns and so on. i would estimate around 1000, but bear in mind, to be fair, that is less then we would normally see because dover— calais handles 10,000 trucks a day at this time of year. we hope to get clarity from paris later today about what the french want, some so

let's hear now from rod mckenzie from the road haulage association who joins us now from weybridge.ireland or europe and just don't know what i need. to put it simply, the government told us what we have to do but not how we have to do it. and that is the most important thing. as chris morris reported, there is this mountain of red tape that we've not had to do for 50 yea rs red tape that we've not had to do for 50 years or so that we now have to get our heads around. the shocking lack of authority from government on this is really worrying and what is even more worrying and what is even more worrying is the government in their press release today appeared to be lining up traders for blame by saying you've got to get ready. otherwise it will be your fault if something goes wrong. by implication. in all likelihood, it probably will. is it you impression your members have done everything that they need to do? other members are saying we don't know what we have to do, we are not clear about any mechanism for all this stuff. we know bits of it, but not all of it. we wa nt know bits of i