Brexit Fears For Cross-Channel Truck Pile-up

In the British port of Dover, 10,000 heavy goods vehicles arrive every day in a perfectly orchestrated symphony of comings and goings.

Dover, United Kingdom, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Nov, 2018 ) :In the British port of Dover, 10,000 heavy goods vehicles arrive every day in a perfectly orchestrated symphony of comings and goings.

A famous fresco by artist Banksy of a man breaking a star off the EU flag with a chisel, however, is a reminder to truckers that Brexit is close at hand.

Contemplating the chaos that Brexit could cause at the UK-France border, worried lorry driver Peluso Donati told AFP: "There are days when it's a mess, but with this, it'll be even worse." Donati left his company's warehouse in Calais, on France's northeast coast, 10 minutes from the Eurotunnel terminal, at 3:00am, fully loaded up for delivery across the Channel.

He has to go through six tests in the hour before boarding the Eurotunnel undersea rail shuttle, including having the truck thoroughly checked over with sniffer dogs, and clearing French and British customs.

More controls in the event of a no-deal Brexit could double these transit times, he said.

As British Prime Minister Theresa May tries to convince MPs to accept her draft deal with the EU, which both Europhiles and Eurosceptics have vowed to torpedo, the threat of a sudden exit from the European Union without a negotiated agreement looms large.

Such a scenario runs "a huge risk of loss of fluidity that panics everyone", Philippe Hourdain, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Hauts-de-France region, told AFP.