Logistics UK and the Road Haulage Association have each used the anniversary of the 2016 vote to argue that the focus should now be on practical fixes: cutting border friction, reducing paperwork, improving digital trade systems and addressing the 90/180-day Schengen rule for professional drivers.
Logistics UK said on Tuesday that closer alignment with key trading partners, including the removal of Brexit-related trade friction, could unlock around £12 billion in long-term economic output for the UK, equivalent to about £400 per household.
The organisation said the figure reflects the economic value of closing the UK’s “trade-intensity gap” — how much the country trades relative to the size of its economy and its 2019 level.
According to analysis by MDS Transmodal for Logistics UK, total UK goods trade by tonnage has fallen by almost 10% in the decade since the Brexit referendum. UK goods imports were down 3.6%, while UK goods exports fell by 20.7%.
By volume, UK exports to the EU fell by 15.9% over the same period, while exports to non-EU Europe and the Mediterranean region dropped by 5.0%. Exports to the rest of the world were down by 37.2%.
Logistics UK said increased border processes and trade friction are likely causes of the decline.
Ben Fletcher, Logistics UK’s chief executive, said the UK needed to “control the controllables” at a time of geopolitical uncertainty.
“The UK grows when it trades, but unnecessary trade friction is increasing costs, reducing competitiveness and holding back growth,” Fletcher said.
“Fixing the friction in the trade we already do could generate billions for the economy, drive growth and raise living standards, with our analysis showing that closing the UK’s trade-intensity gap has the potential to boost the economy by £12 billion. Removing Brexit red tape with our closest trading partner would go a long way to addressing this challenge.”
RHA: Brexit remains an ongoing process for hauliers
The RHA has made a similar argument from the road transport sector’s perspective, saying the anniversary should not be used to return to old referendum arguments, but to focus on what comes next.
Richard Smith, the RHA’s managing director, said Brexit had been a “slow burn” for firms dealing with changing rules.
“For voters, Brexit was a moment at the ballot box. For road freight and coach operators serving Europe, it remains an ongoing process,” Smith wrote.
The RHA said road goods vehicle journeys to Europe remain around 18% below their 2017 peak and are still trending down, with the position worse for UK-registered vehicles.
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“Far fewer goods now move between the EU and UK, meaning less work for all hauliers,” Smith said.
He added that some businesses which previously carried out European work had stopped doing so because the extra administration and border friction made it less attractive than domestic operations.
“Even where there are goods to move, new trade barriers make the process time-consuming, costly and painful. It’s common to find businesses that used to ‘do Europe’ but have given up, as it’s no longer worth the hassle versus domestic work,” Smith said.
SPS agreement seen as first step
Both Logistics UK and the RHA identify a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement between the UK and EU as one of the most important near-term changes.
Logistics UK said the UK government has previously estimated that an SPS agreement could add £5.1 billion a year to the economy. Its own analysis suggests such a deal could reduce export costs by 5% to 8% on affected agri-food goods and save £150 to £250 per consignment.
The organisation said this would be particularly relevant for groupage operators, which often face charges on each smaller shipment combined into a single load.
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The RHA also supports an SPS deal, saying it would remove the need for Export Health Certificates on goods such as food, plants and animals. However, the association warned that such an agreement would only be a starting point, as other paperwork and border checks would remain.
“The end goal must be an environment where moving any goods to or from the EU is far simpler,” Smith wrote.
Driver mobility and digital trade
The two organisations are also aligned on the need to ease driver mobility restrictions.
Logistics UK is pressing for professional drivers to be exempt from EU travel restrictions that limit non-EU nationals to stays within the Schengen Area of up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period.
The RHA described the same rule as one of the most pressing issues for British hauliers, van operators and coach companies working in the EU. It warned that, with the Entry/Exit System being implemented more strictly, the 90/180-day limit could become a hard barrier enforced to the day.
“Left unchanged, EES will limit the work British operators take on, push up costs, and have a detrimental impact on the industry, businesses and wider supply chain resilience,” Smith said.
The RHA is calling for a professional drivers’ exemption from the rule, arguing that it would be a practical “win-win” step at a time when the driver shortage remains a concern.
Logistics UK is also calling for a modern digital gateway to streamline border operations. It says a Single Trade Window, designed with the logistics sector and interoperable with EU systems, would prevent companies from submitting the same data repeatedly to different government systems.
The RHA similarly argues that aligned digital trade systems could make cross-Channel trade easier for businesses on both sides.
Industry message ahead of UK-EU talks
The two interventions give a clear picture of the UK logistics sector’s position ten years after the Brexit vote. The industry’s main representative bodies are not calling for a political rerun of Brexit, but they are warning that the current trading arrangements continue to carry practical costs.
For Logistics UK, the case is economic: reducing friction with the UK’s largest trading partner could boost output and support growth. For the RHA, the issue is operational: border delays, paperwork, driver mobility limits and changing systems are still shaping the day-to-day reality of international road transport.
Logistics UK said more than half of UK-EU goods trade moves via the Short Straits, while the EU accounts for around 40% of UK exports.
Fletcher said the review of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement should focus on removing non-tariff barriers.
“It’s essential that the summit maintains momentum on the removal of costly border checks for meat and dairy products, as well as agreeing further reductions in trade friction such as addressing slow digital border processes and restrictions that limit the number of days HGV drivers and other logistics workers can spend in the 29 Schengen Area countries,” he said.
Smith said the message from the road transport sector was “not to mark the decade since the referendum by looking back at old debates”.
“In the more turbulent world we now live in, a stronger, more workable UK-EU trade relationship is both necessary and achievable,” he wrote.
