Following four consecutive days of disruption last week, due to incursions by migrants, Eurotunnel's truck shuttle service has been largely incident-free this week to the relief of freight operators, including major express distribution firms.
The return to normal is attributed to the deployment of considerable police reinforcements, together with the near-completion of the first phase of (additional) fences.
“Last week’s migrant activity affecting the Channel Tunnel did cause disruption to some UPS Standard deliveries in the UK. UPS has contingency plans in place to minimise these delays and ensure packages reach their destinations as rapidly as possible,” a spokesman for UPS told CEP Research.
“We are not in a position to speculate about potential developments on this issue,” he added.
DHL Express said that its European Road Freight Network was currently running to schedule.
“We have though been affected by delays on both sides of the Channel and adjusted our processes and routes as required, ensuring that any delays were kept to an absolute minimum," a spokesperson for the company explained.
"Furthermore, we maintained constant communication with our customers during these issues to ensure they were informed, their needs assessed and alternative routings proposed. Alternative methods of shipping were offered to the customers according to their advised level of urgency," she added.
TNT said it could not comment specifically about last week's disruption but it had experienced delays to its road services on several occasions since the summer.
"The situation is volatile. This is affecting our peers too," a spokesman said.
With the combined effect of a greater police contingent and the additional fencing appearing to make the site far more secure, attention has turned towards the pre-Christmas peak in freight traffic heading for the UK through the Eurotunnel terminal and preventing tailbacks in trucks so that they don't become stationary targets for migrants.
A dramatic increase is expected in truck throughput over the next few weeks with the number of freight vehicles passing through the Tunnel close to doubling and reaching 6,000 daily.
Eurotunnel is calling for increases in border force personnel and in particular, "more people doing security checks on trucks, because if you have to wait for a security check, queues form," a spokesman for the fixed link operator said.
"If you've got an efficient border process in place with enough resources you can carry out security checks and keep trucks flowing even during a period such as the pre-Christmas peak.And this is the aim of on-going discussions with the UK Border Force and its French counterpart."
DHL said it was "monitoring the situation closely" as the pre-Christmas peak period approached, "to ensure we react quickly to any developments and minimize the impact on our customers.
"At the same time, we are confident that actions taken by both Eurotunnel and the authorities should lead to swift resolutions when issues arise," the spokesperson added.
TNT said it did not want to "speculate" on the holiday season. "We've so far been able to offer a good service to and from the UK by using our next-day air service to complement or substitute the road service," the spokesman said.
As for FedEx Express, the company has adopted a mindset of anticipating service delays "for some shipment deliveries from the UK to European countries and from European countries to the UK as a result of the on-going situation at Eurotunnel and the Port of Calais."
A spokesperson underlined: "We remain committed to customer service and have put operational contingency plans in place to minimise service delays when necessary."
