NI haulage companies at risk of Brexit shutdown

Haulage companies in Northern Ireland are warned that a severe shortage of permits to allow continued truck transport across the Irish border in the event of a 'no deal' Brexit outcome could spell disaster for the local haulage industry.

Lorry drivers from non-EU countries currently require a permit to drive in the European Union, but only a fraction of the number required by the UK haulage industry have actually been issued. BBC reports that the deadline for applying for these permits before the Brexit date at the end of March has now passed, with only 1,200 permits issued of the 40,000 required by UK haulage firms.

Northern Ireland's haulage industry will be hardest hit in the event of a 'no deal' Brexit, with only 60 of the UK's 1,200 permits expected to be given to the region despite sharing a frequently travelled land border with Ireland. The Irish border sees over 13,000 lorries per day across hundreds of border crossings, and 60 permits would cover a negligible proportion of them.

Seamus Leheny of the Northern Ireland Freight Transport Association said that the UK Department of Transport had assumed permits wouldn't be required for lorries to cross the border in Northern Ireland, but that the Irish government said that it knows "nothing about any such deal to not require permits into the Republic of Ireland."

A spokesperson for the Irish Department of Transport confirmed that "It is not possible at this stage for the department to outline what regulatory regime will be in place in Ireland and the wider EU for UK licensed road transport operators in the various potential post-Brexit scenarios." A temporary arrangement may allow haulage companies to operate as usual until the end of December 2019, but this too is dependent on what rights the UK gives to EU truckers.

Source: BBC News