Transport Business Owner Tells Nigel Farage Why Post-Brexit Customs Won't Be Hard

6 October 2019, 16:13 | Updated: 6 October 2019, 16:15

Fred, from Dover, who runs a transport business explained the customs process and why be doesn't think it will be much harder after Brexit.

Fred, from Dover, called in to discuss "customs borders". He told Nigel Farage that "nobody ever explains how the customs system works".

He said: "They just say 'there's going to be customs' and everybody has got this idea that it's going to be like the Berlin wall going up.

Now, we've got a transport company, an international transport company, and we deal with America, we deal with Europe, we deal with Switzerland, we deal with Norway on a weekly basis and it's no problem."

He continued: "The borders came down in '92, '93, we've been going long enough to remember that. We were in business before then and we didn't have mobile phones, we just barely had mobile phones, we didn't have internet banking, we didn't have the internet, we didn't have email and all this sort of thing.

"So when trucks were going through Dover, they were there for a day or so because you know ... things were slower.

Now when we go through Dover, we organise our customs papers, everything is done beforehand, the money is lodged in the customs account, so when the trucks come in there's a barcode on top of the documents, they scan the barcode and pretty much, as long as it's taken me to explain it, is how long it takes to clear customs."

Nigel then asked: "So why the hysteria, Fred? There are people telling us that drugs won't come into the country, food could run out, we're even told in that ridiculous Operation Yellowhammer that the flow of goods across the channel and under the channel could be down by 50 per cent."

Fred replied: "There's absolutely no need because my office organises the custom papers before the truck arrives in Dover, the custom's document, there's a copy of it on the vehicle, all they need to do is - the barcode reader is exactly the same as in the supermarket, the barcode reader zaps it, it either goes route one or route six and then there's a percentage of customs document that are then checked to make sure everything is okay but the majority go through because everything is set up beforehand."

He explained the process of paying VAT after Brexit.

Farage then said: "We've already had the President of the Port of Calais and the boss of the Port of Dover saying there's no problem and you've explained why."