We have all seen the terrifying images of freight traffic jams at the UK borders and the news updates of several large carriers announcing to suspend their operations from mainland Europe to the UK or from the UK towards mainland Europe. What are the current issues exactly? And what can you do to keep your post-Brexit business going as usual?
Since Brexit, both carriers and businesses are required to present certain information to customs. The problem is that their IT systems aren't always designed to include this information. For each parcel, carriers need to provide correct and corresponding HS codes, Country of Origin, GB EORI and GB Vat numbers and a commercial invoice both hardcopy and digitally.
In the case of a parcel being shipped from Europe to the UK, the commercial invoice needs to include: Country of Origin, HS Codes, Sales value paid by the end-consumer, Seller details, Receiver NAW info, GB Vat and GB Eori number shipping DDP.
This data is not impossible to obtain, the issue lies with the systems of either the carrier, the seller or both. If you don't have this data incorporated in your systems (WMS, TMS or e-commerce back-end), your parcel will be stopped at customs causing delays and unhappy UK customers.
Since Brexit, businesses need to collect 20% UK consumer Vat (in the case of a EU-UK delivery) and need to register for UK VAT to obtain a local Vat number used in the quarterly UK Vat administration and filing at HMRC in the UK.
When orders surpass the amount of £135, it gets tricky. Below this amount you pay the Vat periodically, but above, applicable import duties and 20% UK consumer Vat needs to be paid in full before the parcel is delivered.
To do so, you need a carrier that will clear and pre-finance these cost shipping with the DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) Incoterm. Many carriers do not offer this service due to the required customs deposits at HMRC.
Many carriers do not offer DDP, this way of working is called DAP (formerly known as DDU). With Brexit, this way of working is far from ideal. Working with a DAP carrier means that the end-consumer has to pay the Vat before they physically receive their order. These are unexpected costs for the end-consumer client that will definitely cause some dissatisfaction.
For businesses DAP shipments mean they should expand their customer service teams because demanding customers will not appreciate this unpleasant financial surprise.
There is a large online fashion brand that literally dedicated an employee to go through all placed orders to manually delete all UK orders with a value above £135.
Brexit surely made cross-border business more expensive. If the administrative and tax rules alone were not difficult enough, carriers have added surcharges to ship to - and from the UK. From the EU to the UK surcharges of €20 are normal and from the UK to the EU the extra costs are even higher. That's why the export officials from the UK government are now advising businesses to move part of their operations to the EU.
Most of the products sold in cross-border e-commerce are produced outside of the EU causing an absolute export nightmare for UK businesses doing business with the EU. If they ship from Asia to their UK warehouse and execute their EU fulfilment from there, they would have to pay import fees twice! That's why many UK businesses are changing their strategies. Many ship part of their product supply directly from Asia to a EU warehouse and the other part to the UK.
Let’s not forget that Brexit took place during another historic event, the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to acknowledge because carriers are currently executing at a volume they were expecting to handle in 2025 - without being able to expand their workforce to cope with these volumes. They are working on full capacity as it is without the extra operational workload that Brexit brings.
While many borders are already shut or partially shut, waiting times at customs keep increasing causing frustrations amongst demanding online consumers.
If you have read all the challenges mentioned above, it looks like the end of cross-border ecommerce, but this isn't the case. We have identified two workable solutions:
If for strategic or operational purposes, you want to keep on sending parcels cross-border, make sure that you:
have your data, paperwork and your systems up-to-date and compliant
work with a carrier that has this in order as well - a carrier with a good customs infrastructure
make sure that your carrier can send DDP, especially for orders above £135
partner with a carrier that doesn't charge unreasonable fees and surcharges
Outsource your fulfilment in the UK or (for UK businesses) in the EU. It might seem like a bigger hassle but nowadays it isn’t since most systems are plug and play.
Outsourcing your fulfilment locally comes with two big advantages:
Next day delivery, virtually impossible if you ship internationally and so important to compete in e-commerce
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