Lorry drivers spend days waiting to get paperwork to leave UK

Lorry drivers

Hauliers struggling to get the correct paperwork to return to the EU are being forced to wait for days at a Kent lorry park.

Queues of more than a mile have built up on the approach to Ashford International truck stop this week.

Polish lorry driver Adrian Klapczynski, who is attempting to transport steel to his home country, told the PA news agency: “I’ve been here for three days.

I need paperwork so I can go to Dover.

Lorry drivers queue to have their paperwork processed at a customs facility in Ashford, Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA)

“People in the office keep telling me to come back the next day.

“This is a big problem.

I have to leave here.”

Steve Cock, a director at The Custom House, a firm which provides lorry drivers with the documents they need to move goods in and out of the UK, said the disruption has been exacerbated by Border Force officials occupying the truck stop.

This is preventing drivers using his company’s services from taking advantage of its 600 parking spaces.

“It’s not doing (Border Force) any good being here,” Mr Cock said.

“The whole process is slowed down.

“Because they refuse to let us use the truck stop to park our vehicles, that’s causing all sorts of problems because drivers will park anywhere they please.

“They’re inhibiting a commercial enterprise that is there to help them.”

He added: “The French were ready for this, the Dutch were ready for this.

“It’s an embarrassment that we never were.”