Cross-Channel operator Brittany Ferries is to carry out a series of “dry-run” voyages between the UK and France to ensure it is ready for any “no-deal” Brexit mayhem.
The Plymouth-headquartered company has already staged one rehearsal, with lorries travelling from Portsmouth overnight to Caen in France on September 11.
Another 14 trips are planned between now and mid-October involving eight Brittany Ferries ports: Plymouth, Portsmouth and Poole, in the UK, and Roscoff, Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg, and St Malo in France.
They will involve the vessels Armorique, Mont St Michel, Étretat, Barfleur, and Bretagne.
The rehearsals will test procedures in place to ensure lorries are not tied up in long delays if the UK has to leave the European Union without a deal on October 31.
The idea is for information about freight vehicles boarding Brittany Ferries’ vessels in the UK to be sent electronically to French customs officers.
They will then split trucks into into a “green” channel for those with advance clearance, and an “orange” channel for those requiring inspection upon arrival in France.
Drivers will be told of their vehicle’s status by onboard information screens. When they dock in France, lorries in the green channel can bypass customs controls as they exit the port.
But those designated orange must go to a special customs facility for inspection and paperwork checks.
Patrice Narozny, Brittany Ferries’ director of port operations France, said: “Over the last 12 months Brittany Ferries has been actively preparing to deal with a no-deal Brexit.
“We’ve adapted our IT systems, allowing seamless communication with customs offices ashore.
“We’ve also implemented a system allowing us to communicate vital information to lorry drivers via text message and onboard live information screens.
“These dress rehearsals will allow us to test these new tools and procedures, and also the co-ordination between all the different players.
“Our freight customers, holidaymakers travelling with pets, customs offices, port authorities, and our own operations departments all need to be perfectly co-ordinated to ensure smooth and efficient loading and unloading in our ports.
“So we need to test every part of the process to make sure everything works efficiently and harmoniously.
“Once this programme is completed and we’ve made any necessary tweaks, we’ll be ready to welcome our passengers whatever happens post-Brexit.”
The inaugural trial involved about 100 juggernauts travelling from Portsmouth to France carrying a variety of goods including furniture, perfumes, aircraft wings and engines, car parts, fish, tractors, bird food, steel, and salt.
When they disembarked in France they were met by Gérard Darmanin, the French Minister of Public Action and Accounts, who was overseeing the demonstration.
The Portsmouth to Caen route is the busiest Channel crossing west of Dover carrying one million passengers, 280,000 cars and 100,000 heavy good vehicles each year.
Brittany Ferries this week moved to reassure passengers in the wake of publication of the Government’s Operation Yellowhammer report and predictions of three months of port chaos.
The firm said it can’t guarantee Channel crossings to France, Spain and Ireland won’t be affected from a no-deal Brexit but stressed: “Don’t panic, travel with confidence, we are prepared.”
The worse-case-scenario report, released after the Government was forced by MPs to publish it, predicts riots in the street, food price hikes and shortages of medical supplies if the UK leaves the EU without a deal on Halloween.
The firm stressed Yellowhammer’s “reasonable worst case planning assumptions” scenarios relating to potential cross-border problems focus on short sea, Dover to Calais, routes.
But it said it understands passengers may be concerned about their travel plans and wants to reassure them, and freight customers, using Western Channel routes.
Meanwhile, Brittany Ferries is in the process of a €550million fleet renewal programme with three new vessels being built in China.
