With no Brexit Free Trade Agreement between the UK and EU and time fast running out with just 10 days until the Transition Agreement runs out, many companies still don’t know how they’ll trade in a post Brexit world. This includes couriers who are starting to suspend Northern Ireland Courier services before the New Year deadline.
The suspension of Northern Ireland courier services by both DPD and UPS owned Parcel Motel are a strong indicator that you should verify carriage arrangements with the couriers you currently use to avoid a nasty surprise when you return to work on the 4th of January. And with service suspensions already announced you should check regardless of any deal or no deal agreed between the British Government and the EU.
Northern Ireland Courier Brexit Suspensions
DPD
DPD Ireland have posted on their website that their mainland Great Britain into the Republic and Northern Ireland courier services will be suspended as of the 23rd of December. This is likely to give sufficient time to deliver any parcels in the network prior to the 31st of December.
“Brexit is due to come into effect on January 1st, 2021 – the transition period ends on December 31st, 2020. For all goods coming into or out of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from Great Britain, declarations will be required.
As of Tuesday the 8th of December, the EU and UK agreed in principle on the process for implementing the NI Protocol as part of the Withdrawal Agreement for Brexit. After speaking with HMRC, we have confirmation that as part of the agreement, for the vast majority of goods travelling from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, no customs formalities will be required from January 1st 2021. This means DPD Ireland will NOT ask for any customs details from you for your goods travelling from NI to GB, ROI or EU. Customs formalities will STILL be required for goods from GB into NI and we await further clarification from the UK and EU on those details.
Note: we will be temporarily suspending our collection service from mainland Great Britain into the Republic and Northern Ireland from December 23rd 2020. We hope to reinstate the service in due course and will keep you up to date regarding any changes.”
– DPD Ireland
UPS – Parcel Motel
UPS owned Parcel Motel solves the problem for Irish residents when attempting to buy from the UK and finding either very high delivery costs or that websites simply won’t deliver to the Republic of Ireland. They offer virtual addresses, including in Northern Ireland, and then delivery your parcel to your local Parcel Motel locker ready for collection.
Parcel Motel virtual address services in the Northern Ireland will be suspended as of the 28th of December. They will no longer be accepting deliveries at their Northern Ireland depot in Newtownabbey and if a carrier arrives with a delivery it will be refused and returned to the carrier’s depot and hopefully back to the retailer.
“At the end of the year, the UK will leave the single market and customs union. As a result, all parcels crossing the new border between Britain and Ireland will be subject to customs formalities affecting the cost and transit time of your shipment.
Following the Brexit impact, we would like to share with you that as of December 28th, our virtual address services in the UK will be temporarily suspended, until such time as a final Brexit decision has been implemented and our services have been adapted to meet the new requirements.”
– Parcel Motel
9 Responses
MyHermes also redirects you to there international website for shipping to Northern Ireland
Good to see the oven-ready deal working well, another lie from the serial liar Johnson. Another hit the economy does not need. And my sales do not any hindrance either, its hard enough. Merry Christmas everyone
Approx 5-7% of our sales comes from IE via PM. So that’s lost now. Also DHL stopped temp. parcels service into UK.
We saw this coming ages ago and decided back then that we will just not supply to Northern Ireland any more. This is exactly what we have done since Sunday. I looked into the UK Trader Scheme and in all reality it does not seem to be geared towards e-commerce, so I decided to stop halfway through when they started to ask about all kind of regulatory checks and how you keep proof of country of origin, how we make sure it will not be exported on (with the right of HMRC to inspect our bookkeeping for this), how many declarations we are expecting to make per year etc.
Just not worth the hassle and admin. Additionally, I can guarantee you, costs for shipping to NI will skyrocket. Carriers will pass the costs of customs declarations on.
As usual with government changes, somewhere along the line the customer gets shafted. Either larger charges coming northern irelands way or limited services leading to a courier monopoly and guess what that means… Larger charges coming the customers way!
As usual with government changes, somewhere along the line the customer gets shafted. Either larger charges coming northern irelands way or limited services leading to a courier monopoly and guess what that means… Larger charges coming the customers way!
So I am very late to the party and need help! I own a shop and online business that sells a lot to NI and Ireland. I had anticipated problems selling to the EU but not to NI and now unsure what I should be doing. I have my EORI number, but do I now need an XI EORI number to sell to NI? and a EU EORI to sell to Europe? I have applied to the UK Trader Scheme and thinking should I also apply to the Trader Support Service and register my company as a Trader? I am a small (1 woman band) sole trader, I send goods to NI via the Royal Mail and Europe via various couriers. I can’t seem to find out what duties will be/maybe applied to goods to adjust pricing or even postage costs – I sell children’s clothing, accessories, shoes and gifts. Can anyone point me in the direction of some advice (other than HMRC as that’s like wading through treacle to get an answer). Sorry for long post .
Jow,
I’m not surprised that you’re not entirely sure what the situation is, as the guidance kept changing *until the last day*. What I understand though is the following (as another person in your situation):
1. Yes you will need an XI EORI for selling to NI. The GB EORI is used for sending to the EU. You don’t need an EU EORI unless you are shipping from somewhere in the EU.
2. You won’t need to apply to the TSS as you’re not a “trader”. I spent a while trawling through the paperwork on this one. Because you use companies liek Royal Mail and presumably for the EU stuff ones like DPD, DHL, etc, they’re all counted as “Fast Parcel operators” so as far as I understand they will file the paperwork with the customs authorities for you, as long as you tell them what you are sending (HS codes, country of origin, value and descriptions)
3. Duties wise, it entirely depends on what you’re sending and where. In theory there shouldn’t be much if any duties it the value of your stuff is under (i think) £130, but above that it gets a bit murky. Although any duties which are due will likely be billed back by the couriers.
Specifically regarding northern Ireland, new guidance was posted ON NEW YEARS EVE about fast parcel services into NI – in theory they shouldn’t need customs declarations (again, depending on what you’re sending), but I would speak to your account managers with the carriers if you have them to confirm with them what exactly they want from you – We ship to NI via royal mail and other carriers, and with the Royal Mail services, due to the nature of the rules, I still think they will need them.
They say they don’t need declarations on sending basic goods to NI, but for any “excise goods” (alcohol, tobacco, etc) or any of the restricted categories of stuff they do need them. But how will they know if it’s a declarable good if we don’t tell them what it is?
We’re suspending services to NI in the meantime until we get clarification from the carriers we use on what we can do and how much it’ll cost us for the privilege.
Didn’t bungling Boris say ‘over my dead body will we have a border in the Irish sea…’ Go on Boris, do us all a favor your an embarrassment and I am ashamed to be British with you in Number 10