With heavy heart due to Brexit and new rules on export/import, taxation and now the carriers suspending services we have been forced to halt deliveries to EU states as well as some UK areas.
Let us be very clear, we do not want to do this, all this is being forced upon us.
Up until the end of the transition period there have been problems causing delays but, normally around Christmas time there are though it was made worse by the pandemic so some of what was going on has been hidden. And, as all this was not really in the news, the public have been largely unaware.
Now it is in the news as the shortages and delays can no longer be ignored, as reported by the BBC here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55583244
For the first few days of the UK leaving the transition period and the changes that this ushered into force we attempted to adhere to the new systems and rules. We quickly found out that the additional administration was pushing up costs dramatically and that forced us to increase prices for deliveries outside the UK.
But late in the first week carriers started to tell us that there would be serious delays in and out of the UK then decided that services would be suspended until further notice.
To be fair to them, the additional paperwork now required to send anything outside the UK is onerous and not easy making the cost of doing so untenable to continue with.
In some measure, we were embarrassed by the additional costs that we had no choice but to pass onto customers.
Already we had to halt deliveries to Northern Ireland, much to our disgust and anger but now we’re told that the Channel Islands is going in the same direction as even within the “UK” many things appear to be unstable. We’re not sure but, we think that may be on the way to another destination that’s been halted so, that makes it uneconomic to deliver there, we don’t know for sure all we can say is that for now, the Chanel Islands we cannot deliver to.
The is also affecting inbound shipments from outside the UK and, given most all spare parts come from outside the UK as practically none are made here, this is a problem as things were already slow due to the pandemic, now the delays will be more severe.
Packages can and will often be delayed and some delays will be severe and there is nothing that we can do about this.
As has been reported, it is a perfect storm of the pandemic and Brexit causing this and at the worst possible time of year.
We are sorry for any inconvenience that may be caused but sadly this is the new reality that we have to deal with until lawmakers sort it all out.
