Long queues of British tourists stuck at continental passport control are normally tabloid fodder, not a freight story. But Dover Harbour Board chief executive Doug Bannister has now warned that chaos from the EU's new Entry/Exit Scheme (EES) is on track to spread beyond passenger lanes and disrupt UK-EU freight traffic through the Port of Dover — one of Europe's busiest short-sea crossings for trucks moving goods between Britain and the continent. With the summer holiday peak approaching, the warning lands at the worst possible moment for hauliers already juggling tight delivery windows.
What Happened
Bannister told industry press that processing delays tied to EES — the EU's new biometric border system requiring fingerprint and facial-image checks for non-EU arrivals — are mounting at Dover's juxtaposed French border controls. The scheme replaces manual passport stamping with digital biometric enrolment for every first-time crossing, a process that inherently takes longer per traveller than the system it replaces.
Dover's warning is notable because the port operates a shared road-and-freight corridor: passenger vehicles, coaches and freight trucks all pass through the same juxtaposed control booths on the Dover-Calais and Dover-Dunkirk routes. Bannister's concern is that if tourist processing backs up during the July-August peak, the resulting congestion will bleed into the lanes freight vehicles rely on to keep just-in-time deliveries moving, even though EES itself is not designed to target commercial drivers in the same way.
Impact on Freight Rates and Operations
For shippers and forwarders moving goods via the Short Straits, the risk is not a new tariff or capacity cut — it is unpredictable dwell time. Trucks queuing behind delayed passenger traffic face longer border-crossing windows, which compresses the buffer hauliers build into multi-drop European schedules. Perishable and just-in-time cargo — fresh produce, pharmaceuticals, automotive parts — is most exposed, since even a few extra hours at the border can breach delivery windows or spoil temperature-sensitive loads.
Operationally, this also raises the cost of uncertainty. Forwarders may need to build in wider time buffers for Dover-Calais bookings during peak season, and hauliers could face higher driver-hour costs if EES-related congestion pushes crossings past planned shift lengths.
What Shippers Should Do
- Build in EES contingency time: Add extra buffer hours to Dover-Calais and Dover-Dunkirk transit schedules through the July-August peak, particularly for time-sensitive or temperature-controlled cargo.
- Diversify crossing points: Where volumes allow, spread bookings across alternative Channel crossings or the Eurotunnel to reduce exposure to a single congested corridor.
- Track live border status: Monitor Kent Resilience Forum and Port of Dover updates before dispatching drivers during weekends and school-holiday peaks, when passenger volumes are highest.
- Communicate proactively with customers: Flag potential delivery-window slippage to consignees in advance rather than after a missed delivery, especially for contracts with tight SLA penalties.
Key Takeaway
EES is a passenger border scheme on paper, but at a shared crossing like Dover, tourist queues and freight delays are now the same problem — and shippers should plan for both this summer.
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Source: The Loadstar