7 August 2023Article
French customs authority advises of IT outages

The French customs authority has advised that it is replacing its main IT server on Tuesday, 8th August, causing outages on impacted French customs systems from 8am-4pm (UK time) on the day.

The French customs authority has advised that it is replacing its main IT server on Tuesday, 8th August, causing outages on impacted French customs systems from 8am-4pm (UK time) on the day.

This will impact all French teleservices linked to customs clearance (Delta-G [declarations] and Delta-T [Transit].

Whilst SI Brexit may remain functional, it will not work effectively due to its links to the other systems.

The Port of Calais will reroute empty trucks to the green lane, whilst goods-carrying vehicles will be directed to the orange lane car parks for manual inspection by the customs office.

Transit movements to France cannot be routed through a green lane, so they will be directed to the orange lane car parks for manual inspection by the customs office. To speed up this process, France has requested that hardcopy paper TADs (Transit Accompanying Documents) are held by drivers for inspection – French officials will take photographs of the paper TADS for later updating of NCTS.

For Transit movements from France, GVMS has functionality to move manual transit movements. The trader should use ‘SAD declaration’ and enter the manual transit reference number generated under fallback. GVMS will automatically direct these movements to a Border Force facility for authentication of their documents. Border Force will then process all manual OoT functions and OoDes functions if applicable.

Pre-lodged declaration movements are harder to accommodate, and paper fall back processes should be utilised (this is understood to impact French companies more). Fallback procedures for Delta-G and Delta-T will be authorised from 8am (UK time) on the 8th and accompanying documents should be in paper form.

French customs are putting additional customs officers on the ground to speed up on-site processes and additional truck parking spaces have been generated, including at Calais – the overall impact is expected to be lessened thanks to the strong volume of mitigating measures and preparation.

France has informed carriers including DFDS, P&O, Irish Ferries and Eurotunnel, who have been asked to spread traffic during the day to allow for the additional manual processes.

Exports from France to the UK will not be affected but will be processed as normal.

If you have any questions on customs regulations or shipping, please contact our specialist teams here.

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