Paperwork that took two days can now be cleared before a lorry reaches the gate.
For the past decade, a lorry carrying machine parts from a factory in Ardle to a ship at Port Selwyn could expect to spend most of two days waiting for its paperwork. Since Monday, the same load can be cleared by customs officers while the driver is still on the valley road, and roll straight through a dedicated lane at the harbour gate.
The new pre-clearance lane, opened by the port authority and the regional customs office, is the first of its kind on this stretch of coast. Exporters who register for the scheme submit their declarations, certificates of origin and inspection records electronically before the lorry departs. If the documents are in order and the cargo is not flagged for a physical check, the driver receives a green code on a phone and drives through the gate without stopping at the clearance shed.
In its first week, 312 lorries used the lane, according to figures from the port. The average time from arrival at the gate to the quayside fell from 41 hours under the old process to just under 50 minutes.
How the system works
Under the old arrangements, most exporters relied on agents who lodged paper declarations at the customs office on the harbour, a squat brick building that has not changed much since it was built in the 1970s. Lorries arrived at the port, parked in a holding area on the edge of the docks and waited until their documents were stamped. Missing signatures, illegible certificates or a backlog after a weekend meant drivers often spent a night in the cab.
The new scheme, which cost £4.6 million and was jointly funded by the port authority and the Assembly’s trade development budget, links exporters, hauliers and customs officers through a shared digital system. To join, businesses must pass an audit of their record-keeping and security procedures. About 140 firms have registered so far, with a further 90 applications pending. Customs officers still carry out physical inspections. Around one load in twenty is selected for checks, either at random or because of risk factors, and is directed to the inspection bay. The difference, officials say, is that officers can now focus their time on the loads that need it.
A relief for smaller firms
Large exporters with in-house compliance teams had found ways around the delays, often by booking slots days in advance. It was smaller firms that suffered most, and they have been among the keenest to sign up.
“We make specialist valves, and our customers want them yesterday. Two days at the harbour has cost us orders, simply because a competitor somewhere else could promise faster delivery. On Tuesday our lorry left the yard at six and the container was on the ship by half past nine. I nearly rang the customs office to check it had really happened.”
That was Teresa Mullaney, managing director of Ardle Flow Systems, which employs 38 people in a unit on the edge of the town. She estimates the firm will save around £30,000 a year in waiting charges, driver hours and penalty clauses alone. Hauliers are also pleased, though with some reservations. The Selwyn Road Hauliers’ Association said drivers welcomed the end of overnight waits but warned that the lane only helped if exporters filled in their forms correctly. Lorries with incomplete documents are still turned into the old holding area, and early reports suggest some firms have struggled with the new system.
Next steps at the port
The port authority plans to extend the scheme to imports in the spring and to add a second pre-clearance lane at the eastern gate by the end of next year. Gareth Lindqvist, the authority’s chief executive, said the aim was to make Port Selwyn the fastest-clearing harbour in the region, and to win back traffic that had drifted to larger ports along the coast.
“We are not going to compete on size,” he said. “We are a small port. What we can compete on is time, and that is what exporters tell us they value most.” Not everyone is convinced. The union representing customs staff said it had concerns about the pace of change and the reduction in face-to-face checks, and wanted assurances that staffing at the harbour would not be cut as more declarations moved online. The customs office said no job losses were planned.
For now, the drivers in the old holding area on Thursday afternoon could see the new lane working from their cabs. One, waiting for a stamp on a load of timber, watched three lorries sail past in the space of a few minutes. “Next time,” he said, “I am asking the office to sign up.”
