Road Haulage Association (RHA)

With multiple cross-border customs requirements continuing to evolve, there’s welcome news that the Windsor Agreement implementation has been granted a 30-day grace period and will now take effect on 1st May. The post-Brexit regulatory landscape for freight movements between the UK and Northern Ireland effectively brings these hauliers into the international haulier sector. Operators must have a fundamental understanding of the new documentation; ignorance will be no excuse under the law. To support hauliers, RHA will be hosting a series of online workshops and training sessions for Northern Ireland and Europe, focusing on what, when, and how hauliers move cross-border freight. The Road Haulage Association (RHA) International Group held its AGM this week with presentations from UK Border Force and Customs Link. Border Force stated the quality of data is generally poor. There are 34,000 UK hauliers registered under the GVMS scheme, the official compliance push back starts now with over 300 hauliers due to receive compliance failure letters in the next few days, the serious nature of mandatory border security and compliance failures cannot be underestimated and hauliers are advised to fully understand regulations before attempting to trade. It was also noted that goods moving under an ATA temporary export carnet which are moving under a transport contract will still require a S&S declaration, no mean task for one haulier who stated a single trailer could contain 2000 separate items! The RHA also attended the IRU Commission on Customs Affairs (CAD) virtual meeting, bringing together trade and customs experts from around the world, such as United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO). This meeting again emphasised the opportunities and challenges of fully implementing digital trade documents around the world, the growth of global eCommerce somewhat forcing the pace.  The IRU presented regional updates with some fascinating statistics around the growth of TIR road freight movements. For example, Pakistan records a 205% increase in TIR trips to Asia, Gulf States and even Eastern Europe. China continues to boom international road freight trips with a 400% increase in 2024, they have trucks now reaching Dubai in 15 days. The RHA makes no excuses for highlighting the opportunities and shared challenges from other countries in this blog, for entrepreneurial international hauliers have always been at the forefront of developing new trade routes and generally the TIR document has facilitated this. On April 1st Iraq will be the latest country to adopt TIR and this could be something of a game changer for East West connectivity. Indeed, the ongoing work by RHA director John Lucy in developing new road freight lanes connecting Europe to the Gulf States was applauded by the Commission and John is now assisting Dubai based forwarders to arrange the first UK & EU to Iraq road freight trips. Thoughts welcome

Today Zemo welcomes members, stakeholders, and Welsh Government officials to the launch of our report, ‘Actions for Accelerating the Decarbonisation of Commercial Vehicles in Wales’. Produced for the Llywodraeth Cymru / Welsh Government, the report sets out the pathway to decarbonising freight transport in Wales. The report lists 60 ‘specific objectives’ that require policy actions to achieve them, identifying the body (or bodies) with primary responsibility and the timeframe recommended for implementation. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/eVyPkSQn #SustainableTransport #NetZero #ZemoPartnership #CommercialVehicleDecarbonisation #FreightDecarbonisation