Logistics & customs industries firing distress flares now over pace of #brexit border preps.

Demanding urgent high-level meeting with ⁦ @michaelgove⁩ ⁦ @RishiSunak⁩ ⁦ @grantshapps⁩ via @FT 1/thread https://on.ft.com/3hUw8C4 

First the letter itself - short but sweet - and important to note that it comes from the experts. The groups that actually move stuff and do stuff. I am not an expert, I can only report their concerns - which they are clearly now escalating. /2

There are also other signatories to that letter - including some household name logistics companies - for which discretion is the better part of valour.

But they are deeply worried on three counts:
1) IT not being ready
2) Biz having no time to adjust
3) Govt not listening /3

Let's take each in turn. First the IT not being ready.

There are about 10 new IT systems business will have to grapple with, three of which are UK Govt related.

These include the new SmartFreight App and the GVMS pre-lodgement system for goods going UK-EU /4

They are not ready and industry doesn't have its hands on them in order to get used to them.

For example the SmartFreight App that is supposed stop traffic jams in Kent.

As Sarah Laouadi of @LogisticsUKSL says even it it is ready by oct/nov how will biz adjust? /5

This is a classic of the Whitehall solution that doesn't take into account ground realities - for example 85% of cross channel freight is in EU lorries. That means the App has to work for French, Romanian, Hungarian....etc /6

And this - to take point 2, adjustment - is where biz is starting to lose it's temper with the government that simply seems to fail to grasp the scale of what is being asked of it.

As Robert Windsor of @BIFA tells me there is a "complete lack of appreciation" of this. /7

To give you one example that I was quoted by a logistics expert who has been engaging with govt.

He said they had no idea how long it takes to 'cleanse/scrub' datasets to make them compatible for use in customs documentation...it can take months. /8

This is why the letter contains such a heartfelt plea to "to take seriously our concerns and listen to the detail during this roundtable" - it is a cry for help. Yes officials listen, take notes, send them up the chain - but politically it doesn't seem to cut through /9

You'd think at this late stage, this message might have got through.

But obviously not. The govt has lots of paper plans. They look good on slides.

But they have to work in the real world. /10

There will be lots of talk of "project fear" - and I guess we'll find out soon enough if all these expert groups and companies are just making this stuff up.

But take a read of the govt Border Operating Model - only 100 pages... /11

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/908534/Border_Operating_Model.pdf

When you consider where we are now - and then what will be required...it boggle the mind a bit, to put it mildly.

Even with a six-month phase in period for EU-GB, companies have to be fully ready to send stuff to EU on day 1...it doesn't sound like we'll be ready. /12

As Shane Brennan @ColdChainShane from the Cold Chain Federation says, industry is pretty much resigned “Engaging in transition discussions with Government requires of us a certain suspension of disbelief about the scale and complexity of what is promised..." /13

Richard Burnett @RHARichardB puts the industry position in a nutshell: “The government has to listen and grasp the detail, because the issues being raised are not being resolved fast enough.”

If does all go pear-shaped, no-one can say there weren't warnings. ENDS