Customs Clearance after Brexit | Duty Compliance

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Pre-Brexit, EU trade accounted for 49% of UK imports and 43% of exports making it the UK’s largest trading partner. Understandably the impact of leaving the Union created many new challenges for British importers & exporters, Fresh Clear have been on hand from the outset to support the changing needs of our clients.

This included the expansion of our port coverage and securing authorisations to provide transit services, the latter has enabled us to assist exporters with their deliveries to destinations beyond the first country of arrival in the EU i.e. goods sent from the UK to Poland via France, Belgium, Holland and Germany.

Port Coverage

Fresh Clear submit import and export declarations for our customers from the ports highlighted on the map to the right. However this list isn’t exhaustive, so if you would like to discuss alternate locations please get in touch. It's easy.

Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS)

This government system is used by hauliers to pre-notifying HMRC of their impending arrival or departure via port locations where roll-on roll-off (RoRo) services are in operation, this includes situations where goods enter the UK under transit. It’s worth noting that some ports operate a mixed model which allows RoRo terminals at the port to adopt GVMS while other terminals at the same location operate the temporary storage/inventory linked model.

GVMS enables hauliers to combine (pre-lodged) customs declarations for a given vehicle into a single GMR number for the crossing, this, in turn, allows customs controls to be conducted while goods are en route, avoiding the need to use the temporary storage model (and being added to a port inventory). Some RoRo locations have insufficient space to hold cargo whilst customs controls are conducted, GVMS supports this by preventing unnecessary delays if the goods are not flagged for further checks. If a vehicle does get selected for checks, GVMS will direct the haulier to a designated location, this could be away from the port at an inland border facility (IBF) such as Sevington near Ashford in Kent.

Fresh Clear can perform customs declarations for goods arriving or departing the GVMS locations listed below, and importantly we can also support you by enabling the release of goods from the relevant port inventory (mixed model locations) if something goes awry with GVMS, this occurs if there is a GVMS outage or if the carrier or port directs the goods to inventory in error.

Inbound GVMS movements into Great Britain supported by Fresh Clear

Dover (Irish Ferries, P&O, DFDS – all RoRo movements)
Eurotunnel (all RoRo movements)
Felixstowe (DFDS only - all RoRo movements)
Harwich (Stena Line only - all RoRo movements)
Hull (P&O only - all RoRo movements)
Immingham (DFDS, Stena Line - all RoRo movements)
Killingholme (Stena Line, CLdN, DFDS - all RoRo movements)
Newhaven (DFDS only - all RoRo movements)
Poole (Brittany Ferries only - RoRo accompanied only)
Portsmouth (Brittany Ferries only - RoRo accompanied only)
Purfleet (CLdN - all RoRo movements)
Tilbury 2 (P&O only - all RoRo movements)

Outbound GVMS movements from Great Britain supported by Fresh Clear

Dover (Irish Ferries, P&O and DFDS – all RoRo movements)
Eurotunnel (all RoRo movements)
Newhaven (DFDS only, all RoRo movements)

*The “movement out” list is shorter than the “movement in” list because omitted locations use GVMS for imports only, the temporary storage model is used for exports, Fresh Clear can assist with exports via temporary storage at these locations.

Transit

If you are planning to export goods to an EU or CTC member country beyond the first point of arrival in the EU, your goods need to be accompanied a T1 transit document, Fresh Clear can arrange this for you alongside your export declaration, we can also talk you through the various considerations if you are unfamiliar with the transit process. If you regularly export from the same warehouse but currently send your vehicles to a transit office to collect their T1’s, we could help you to save valuable time and effort by issuing your transit documents directly to your team, avoiding potentially lengthy and costly delays. The addition of this service has been met with positive feedback from existing clients and their appointed hauliers. Please contact us for more information.