14 March 2025Article
French Customs Informs of Maintenance on the Smart Border System (SI-Brexit)

Maintenance is set to cause minor delays and impacts to the UK-France border as manual customs checks take place.

HMRC has announced that the Smart Border System (SI-Brexit) will be unavailable on Monday, 17th March from 4:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. CET due to maintenance.

No automated processing will take place during this time, which will prevent the automatic routing of lorries crossing the border into France. All non-empty lorries will be directed to “orange” parking areas for manual customs checks and will therefore have to stop at the customs inspection area to have their import customs formalities validated before they can leave the port/terminal. Empty lorries will not be affected.

Other IT systems will remain operational, and traders can still submit transit and pre-lodged declarations as normal.

At Woodland Group, we provide seamless EU & UK customs brokerage solutions, ensuring full compliance and helping businesses to navigate post-Brexit trade.

We will continue to closely monitor any developments and will provide customers with any relevant updates.

Should you have any further questions, contact us here.

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