UK customs officials fix border IT system after 10-day glitch
HMRC has restored its customs system to full functionality after a 10-day outage, which caused mass delays in shipments to and from the EU.
'Following our update on Friday 8 April 2022, we can confirm that the continuity plan that was in place over the weekend has now been lifted,' HMRC wrote.
'The Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) is now fully operational, and you'll need a Goods Movement References (GMRs) for all movements using GVMS. We apologise for any inconvenience caused whilst we investigated the issue.'
That 'inconvenience' included miles-long tailbacks down the M20, one of the UK's most important motorways that links London to Folkestone and Dover.
The GVMS system, which companies transporting goods between the UK and EU use to file customs documents electronically, went live on the 1st January as part of the Government's post-Brexit border management system.
The system links information on cross-border customs declarations of goods with the vehicle that is transporting them.
On 31st March, an update to a different government customs system, known as Chief, caused the GVMS to go offline.
The outage prevented transport managers from using GVMS to get the necessary 'single movement' reference number for leaving the UK, resulting in delays and cancellations during an already busy time of year.
The British meat industry urged the government to expedite the shipment of perishable goods after a backlog at Dover port left lorries transporting fresh food waiting for two days to cross the English Channel.
A number of factors, including Easter traffic and the suspension of the P&O ferry crossing as a result of huge layoffs, had a role in the chaos, but the GVMS outage was said to be the most significant contributor.
"It's just reinforcing for people - particularly the European-based haulage operations - the hassle of dealing with the UK," said Shane Brennan, CEO of Cold Chain Federation, which represents businesses operating frozen and chilled storage distribution vehicles.
"It's going to be a real problem if it carries on and compounds our ongoing problem of having enough capacity to get stuff into the UK."
HMRC adopted contingency measures while GVMS was down, allowing hauliers to produce other proof - such as a transit accompanying document or a movement reference number - to show customs declaration had been made.
HMRC announced the problem had been fixed on Friday, but it kept contingency measures in place until Monday.
Duncan Buchanan, the policy director at the Road Haulage Association, said the GVMS outage was "really unhelpful" at a time when the industry was experiencing an "accumulation" of other issues.
Truckers were also affected by GVMS system glitches earlier this year.
In January, hauliers encountered problems such as shipments not loading on the IT system and reference codes not being accepted.
Japanese carmaker Honda Motor was among the firms that faced delays in its cargo receiving custom clearance. A shipment of the company's power products and parts was held up at the UK border due to some products being incorrectly coded.