Foto: diamond geezer / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

4-day HMRC stress test at Sevington IBF begins tonight

HMRC have scheduled a stress test at the Inland Border Facility (IBF) site in Sevington beginning at 23:59 tonight. The test shall continue until 23:59 on Friday 16th September.

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The Motis shipping company has explained that the test will temporarily impact the services offered at its Dover Western Docks site.

In a statement, Motis said that during the stress test period, its IBF facilities would not be available at its site in Dover Western Docks.

This means that the processing GMRs and ATA Carnets during this period must be done at the Sevington site. Motis adds that there is an exception for vehicles carrying live animals, or ADR Products which cannot be processed at Sevington. These will be handled at Motis Dover Western Docks as normal.

Motis’ Dover Western Docks facility will nonetheless remain open during the stress test for the following functions:

  • Customs processing of Live Animals and ADR Cargo
  • Truck Parking
  • Processing of Inventory Linked Customs clearance
  • Cargo Handling / Distribution
  • Café Facilities
  • Motis Freeflow

The company confirms  that full Inland Border Facilities at Dover Western Docks (i.e. processing of GMR’s / ATA Carnets etc) will resume at 23:59 on Friday 16th September once the stress test is over.

According to a LinkedIn post by customs expert Robert Hardy, the aim of the stress test is to determine whether Sevington alone could handle most of the customs traffic.


Photo: diamond geezer / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0