Brexit customs checks: hauliers must register for the Goods Vehicle Movement Service

The UK has been phasing in border controls for most goods imports over 2021 and 2022. While the EU introduced full customs controls from 2021, the UK will do the same from the 1 January of 2022.

One of the most important changes is that hauliers who transport goods between the EU and Great Britain must register for the Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS). Otherwise, HGVs carrying goods will not be allowed to board ferries/channel tunnel trains, nor cross the EU/UK border or clear their goods through customs.

Who should register?

All hauliers (both UK and non-UK registered) that move goods into Great Britain from the EU must register for the service before their first cross border journey in 2022.

This includes the following:

• independent drivers transporting goods and doing their own customs paperwork
• companies that sub-contracts to pick up goods on behalf of another business
• logistics businesses, hired to transport goods and complete customs processes on behalf of another business
• large retail businesses, that transport and declare their own goods

The service might be familiar to those who transport goods under the Common Transit Convention or transit.

Which ports can hauliers use from 1 January?

The government has provided a list of places in the UK that uses the GVMS service and HGVs should enter the country through those ports.

These are the designated ports using GVSM:

Locations supporting pre-lodged Customs Controls

• Belfast
• Larne
• Warrenpoint

Locations providing Offices of Transit digitally

• Aberdeen (SeaCargo movements only)
• Belfast
• Dover
• Eurotunnel
• Felixstowe (DFDS movements only)
• Fishguard
• Harwich (Stena movements only)
• Heysham (Stena, Seatrucks movements only)
• Holyhead
• Hull Ferry Terminal, King George Dock – Berths HF1; HF2; HF3 (P&O Customers only)
• Immingham (DFDS, SeaCargo movements only)
• Killingholme
• Larne
• Liverpool (P&O, Stena, Seatrucks movements only)
• Newhaven
• Pembroke
• Port of Cairnryan
• Port of Loch Ryan
• Port of Tyne (DFDS movements only)
• Portsmouth (Condor Ferries movements only)
• Purfleet
• Sheerness (DFDS movements only)
• Teesport (P&O movements only)
• Tilbury (P&O movements only)
• Warrenpoint

Hauliers or carriers using a UK port with the Goods Vehicle Movement Service need to create a goods movement reference (GMR) if they are moving through a border location. The GMR can be created in the Goods Vehicle Movement Service.

How to register

Hauliers need a Government Gateway user ID and password to register and they should use exactly the same address for goods vehicle movement service registration that you have used for any other Government Gateway service.

Also, an EORI starting with GB is needed for registration.

>>> REGISTER HERE <<<

What else do hauliers need from January?

Some controls, including certificates and physical checks on agri-foods and plant imports, have been postponed till 1 July 2022.

However, the requirement for pre-notification of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) goods, which was due to be introduced on 1 October 2021, is needed from 1 January 2022.

According to the latest schedule provided by the government in the middle of September, the following additional requirements will be introduced on 1 July 2022.

• the requirements for Export Health Certificates
• the Phytosanitary Certificates and physical checks on SPS goods at Border Control Posts
• the Safety and Security declarations on imports