‘For anyone sitting down to eat their bowl of cereal, there’s challenges because you need everything on the shelves’

The haulage sector needs more Government support and engagement to deal with Brexit fallout, an industry body has warned.

Aidan Flynn, general manager of the Freight Transport Association (FTAI), said although “ a lot of work” has been done by the Government, his organisation was calling for “more specific engagement with the transport sector and the haulage sector in particular”.

The FTAI is holding its annual transport manager conference in Enfield, Co Meath, on Tuesday. Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland ahead of the conference, Mr Flynn said: “It’s vitally important that the hauliers along with consigners and producers are much more engaged, and we would like to see much more of that message by Government and State agencies and help to organise and get people engaged in developing contingency plans.”

Mr Flynn noted there are plans for 400 new Revenue inspectors and a number of veterinary inspectors but added: “a lot of the narrative at the moment is predicated around 100 per cent compliance, and the industry will not be prepared on day one of no deal.

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“We really do need time because time is going to be needed to change, and the industry needs time because there’s quite a bit of upskilling required to do that,” Mr Flynn said.

“For instance around Dublin Port we need to know what the contingency plans are in the event of delays – traffic can’t build up in the Port Tunnel, what are the welfare supports for drivers, what’s going to happen if drivers are out of time, how are they going to be dealt with by the enforcement authorities?

Mr Flynn pointed out the industry is predominantly made up of smaller and medium enterprises. “The average size fleet in the haulage sector is just around five trucks and unfortunately these guys are working on very tight margins and cannot instigate change unless they’re mandated to do so.”

He noted 90 per cent of UK trade is through Dublin Port “so it’s very intensively worked; 60 per cent of goods coming into the port are food -related products, so for anyone sitting down to eat their bowl of cereal this morning, there’s challenges there because you need everything on the shelves and at the minute everything is packed on a daily basis for next-day delivery.”

Niall Cotton of BOC Gases Ireland, one of the participants at the FTAI event, said: “Are we prepared? I’ve been asked this question a number of times and we are prepared. Are we fully prepared? I would say we are as prepared as we can be.”

Another participant, Ray Cole Virginia Logistics, told Morning Ireland: “I’m going grey since the word Brexit was mentioned. It’s an unknown for everybody, we’re preparing as best we can, for what we know.

“We’ve a lot of drivers on the road and their big fear is going back to the old days of borders and queueing and all that sort of thing; a lot of them say if this happens they’re going to get another job because they don’t want to go back there again.”

“Worse case scenario is no deal on the 29th and everything crashes out. It will be like the snow this time last year . . . make sure you have lots of bread in the house,” Mr Cole said.