# Dover



## REC (Jul 22, 2022)

Hope nobody on here is trying to leave Dover today! Those five hour queues look a nightmare!


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## Drover (Jul 22, 2022)

French passport control,  according to the bbc.
It seems to be lack of staff


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## Derekoak (Jul 22, 2022)

We went through on 16th very early. 2.5 hours allowed,  It took 2 hours to get into the port at all, a very long time to get through customs, only 4 kiosks working, we got to the dfds kiosk half an hour after our booking had sailed. Dfds got us on the ferry 1 hour after our booked one. It left half an hour later than its time. We were not charged extra, although our ticket was flexible.
 as I see it Staff doing a good job in trying circumstances. It will get worse until we partially unwind this hard Brexit.


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## SquirrellCook (Jul 22, 2022)

Can't the French give the Illegal immigrants jobs at customs?  It would solve many problems.


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## SimonM (Jul 22, 2022)

Drover said:


> French passport control,  according to the bbc.
> It seems to be lack of staff


And probably a large portion of “we don’t give a sh*t!”


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## REC (Jul 23, 2022)

And again today, although reports seem to say it is more organised?


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## trixie88 (Jul 23, 2022)

nephew and family  was due to travel on 9.30am eurotrain via tunnel today
.
....now 3.15pm....still queuing.....been queuing now for about 7/8 hours.....horrendous...

...feel for those with very young children.....nephews children are abput 10 and 11 yrs
when they do eventually get thru tunnel..there is apparently another long wait to get thru on french side.


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## shortcircuit (Jul 23, 2022)

I went through tunnel a few weeks ago and it was straight out.  Have things changed?


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## Scotia (Jul 23, 2022)

Ferry @ Lochranza still show up and board, there was a five minute delay when Murdo the captain nipped over to the sandwich station for a snack on Thursday but all running on time now.


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## caledonia (Jul 23, 2022)

Scotia said:


> Ferry @ Lochranza still show up and board, there was a five minute delay when the captain nipped over to the sandwich station for a snack on Thursday but all running on time now.


Yer a bad man


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## barge1914 (Jul 23, 2022)

French and Dover agreed need for more booths for French Border guards at UK borders. Once HMG learned it would require funding they turned it down flat. You reap what you sow.


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## trixie88 (Jul 23, 2022)

news report just seem to give out info on dover (ferrys)..not much mention of folkstone euro tunnel which seems to be worse queues than dover......just been listening to folk calling in who are stuck in the folkstone queues......requiring help..police dont want to know....highways dont want to know......horrendous.....

took them 6 hours at one pont to travel 1 mile


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## jagmanx (Jul 23, 2022)

Incompetence Rules !
No funding and hype re cutting taxes.
Incredible ? No plain STOOPID !


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## Fisherman (Jul 23, 2022)

trixie88 said:


> news report just seem to give out info on dover (ferrys)..not much mention of folkstone euro tunnel which seems to be worse queues than dover......just been listening to folk calling in who are stuck in the folkstone queues......requiring help..police dont want to know....highways dont want to know......horrendous.....
> 
> took them 6 hours at one pont to travel 1 mile


And who or what will we blame for this then.
Its a complete shambles and it’s costing us tens of billions every year.


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## jagmanx (Jul 23, 2022)

Uk government states "Take care in the heat !"
No we will make you queue in the heat.
Ok we are securing the borders with traffic jams !
Enuff !!!!


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## Scotia (Jul 23, 2022)

Getting political now! Spend your money at home get things moving here first!


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## Fisherman (Jul 23, 2022)

Scotia said:


> Getting political now! Spend your money at home get things moving here first!


Kind of unavoidable, but this is important to this site, and relevant.
It would be a shame if it went that way and the thread deleted. 
No doubt some on here will sadly have been involved in this shambles.
It will be interesting to read what they have to say, and any advice they can give.


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## trixie88 (Jul 23, 2022)

trixie88 said:


> nephew and family  was due to travel on 9.30am eurotrain via tunnel today
> .
> ....now 3.15pm....still queuing.....been queuing now for about 7/8 hours.....horrendous...
> 
> ...



its now 6.30pm...they have finally boarded  train after 10/11 hour


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## runnach (Jul 23, 2022)

2nd July our tunnel crossing original  booking @ 22.00hrs. Did the doggy deed and enquired about earlier crossing, granted for 19.20 hrs. Time passed and after having a meal, I returned to concierge desk to enquire an earlier crossing, granted and got on the 16.30 hr crossing. Jumped through all the hoops with no issues. I wonder what gone wrong within a few weeks?


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## Fisherman (Jul 23, 2022)

runnach said:


> 2nd July our tunnel crossing original  booking @ 22.00hrs. Did the doggy deed and enquired about earlier crossing, granted for 19.20 hrs. Time passed and after having a meal, I returned to concierge desk to enquire an earlier crossing, granted and got on the 16.30 hr crossing. Jumped through all the hoops with no issues. I wonder what gone wrong within a few weeks?


It just go a whole lot busier.
Apparently Dover lacks enough space to deal with the new customs and passport controls. They added 4 additional booths in what space was available, but in busy times like this it’s simply not enough. Also there are reports of problems at the tunnel, and Felixstowe.


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## runnach (Jul 23, 2022)

I have never used Dover Bill, always the tunnel, so can’t speak for Dover lack of facilities, it appears to be the perfect storm, maybe time for a relocation of passed its sell by date port?
I have always found the tunnel a very slick operation, would appear good luck Scottish schools and colleges finish their semesters earlier than our English counterparts.


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## runnach (Jul 23, 2022)

Are the other South of England ferry ports suffering same issues as Dover?


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## Fisherman (Jul 23, 2022)

runnach said:


> I have never used Dover Bill, always the tunnel, so can’t speak for Dover lack of facilities, it appears to be the perfect storm, maybe time for a relocation of passed its sell by date port?
> I have always found the tunnel a very slick operation, would appear good luck Scottish schools and colleges finish their semesters earlier than our English counterparts.


It’s all about the additional checks required now Terry.
Yes 6 French customs officers were 1hour 15mins late yesterday, but the booths are fully manned today.
Dover could cope when checks were simpler, but the additional time needed is causing serious issues.
Lorries are taking an average of 18 hours to get through, it’s a total shambles.


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## Derekoak (Jul 24, 2022)

Fisherman said:


> It just go a whole lot busier.
> Apparently Dover lacks enough space to deal with the new customs and passport controls. They added 4 additional booths in what space was available, but in busy times like this it’s simply not enough. Also there are reports of problems at the tunnel, and Felixstowe.


Dover port asked the government for 33 million in 2020 for more passport kiosks and facilities to cope with more demand. The government said no and gave 33,000.


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## Fisherman (Jul 24, 2022)

Derekoak said:


> Dover port asked the government for 33 million in 2020 for more passport kiosks and facilities to cope with more demand. The government said no and gave 33,000.


These issues are also taking place at the tunnel, and Felixstowe. Car drivers trying to cross at Felixstowe have spent the night in their cars. And yet our government are attempting to blame the French for this shambles, it’s embarrassing. Ok 6 French border guards were delayed by just over an hour on Friday, are we really to believe that this alone is to blame. They are treating us like idiots.

They have completely underestimated what’s involved in these checks, and it’s obvious our ports cannot cope with them. This is a national disgrace, affecting not only these poor holidaymakers, but important trade with the EU.


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## barryd (Jul 24, 2022)

Derekoak said:


> Dover port asked the government for 33 million in 2020 for more passport kiosks and facilities to cope with more demand. The government said no and gave 33,000.



Yep. Here it is https://www.cityam.com/govt-rejects...s-at-dover-leaving-longer-queues-more-likely/

Covid hid all this but most of us knew it was going to happen. This would have happened in 2020 and 2021 had we not been in lock down or restricted.  They couldnt have had more time to prepare. Six years actually now.


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## Fisherman (Jul 24, 2022)

barryd said:


> Yep. Here it is https://www.cityam.com/govt-rejects...s-at-dover-leaving-longer-queues-more-likely/
> 
> Covid hid all this but most of us knew it was going to happen. This would have happened in 2020 and 2021 had we not been in lock down or restricted.  They couldnt have had more time to prepare. Six years actually now.


I just think it’s time for us to get in with things, make the best of this situation. Be honest and stop blaming others for what we have created. The fact is we had years to prepare, and it’s clear now that our preparations were inadequate. If I was French reading comments from our government, I would be really angry right now. We need their help, winding them up, will only make matters worse.
The blame for this quite clearly lies this side of the channel, get this sorted asap, and stop all this nonscence.

But let’s spare a thought for all those who have suffered due to this.


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## runnach (Jul 24, 2022)

Fisherman said:


> It’s all about the additional checks required now Terry.
> Yes 6 French customs officers were 1hour 15mins late yesterday, but the booths are fully manned today.
> Dover could cope when checks were simpler, but the additional time needed is causing serious issues.
> Lorries are taking an average of 18 hours to get through, it’s a total shambles.


Morning Bill, I can only speak from our recent tunnel experience, it was plain sailing through French customs, we got pulled over by Brit side to check gas bottle off, which is the norm. I did note cars behind me, I’m guessing these were random checks? No one asked for access to our MH.
I guess the current issues right now is the sheer volume trying to cross the channel.


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## Fisherman (Jul 24, 2022)

Morning Terry, Yes its obvious we cannot cope with the higher demand.
Heres hoping we will learn from this.


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## myvanwy (Jul 24, 2022)

Lets see in one or two weeks time when the flow should be reversed. We are able to suit ourselves these days regarding travel so returned before the "rush". One thing I will mention is, when we got to Calais tunnel port and went through the return booths, I pulled up for the checks at the French booth but the operative was sound asleep. Chair reclined and feet upon desk. I revved the engine a bit but no sign of life. Do I hit the horn?  SWMBO says, look inside, there are two more sound asleep. Stuff this, I proceeded to the Brit booth and mentioned to the guard, "they are fast asleep back there" to which he replied "Yep, we had heard that laughing. Now I need to go and check my passport as I cant remember if it got stamped on return.


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## alcam (Jul 24, 2022)

myvanwy said:


> Lets see in one or two weeks time when the flow should be reversed. We are able to suit ourselves these days regarding travel so returned before the "rush". One thing I will mention is, when we got to Calais tunnel port and went through the return booths, I pulled up for the checks at the French booth but the operative was sound asleep. Chair reclined and feet upon desk. I revved the engine a bit but no sign of life. Do I hit the horn?  SWMBO says, look inside, there are two more sound asleep. Stuff this, I proceeded to the Brit booth and mentioned to the guard, "they are fast asleep back there" to which he replied "Yep, we had heard that laughing. Now I need to go and check my passport as I cant remember if it got stamped on return.


Indeed . Being able to travel out with peak times is one of the great advantages many (most?) of us on here have .


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## Bigshug (Jul 24, 2022)

Returning on the tunnel from France we have found that the UK passport control causes more delays than the french


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## st3v3 (Jul 24, 2022)

Fisherman said:


> It’s all about the additional checks required now Terry.



What are the additional checks?


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## Fisherman (Jul 24, 2022)

st3v3 said:


> What are the additional checks?


There‘s loads online, I just took this one Steve









						Dover port boss blames Brexit for delays as he explains passport 'checks and stamps'
					

Port of Dover boss Doug Bannister has told LBC that it's "absolutely true" that Brexit is ultimately to blame for the extreme delays at the port of Dover because passports require extra checks.




					www.lbc.co.uk


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## runnach (Jul 24, 2022)

Maybe port boss is inept and looking for a cop out? Anyway, putting things into perspective, the world is being held to ransom by Putin, who also continues to this day to barrel bomb innocents in Syria. Grain being used as a powerful weapon, with no end in sight. And we moan about being held up for a few hours at a port. We have it better than many others right now!


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## mariesnowgoose (Jul 24, 2022)




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## Fisherman (Jul 24, 2022)

runnach said:


> Maybe port boss is inept and looking for a cop out? Anyway, putting things into perspective, the world is being held to ransom by Putin, who also continues to this day to barrel bomb innocents in Syria. Grain being used as a powerful weapon, with no end in sight. And we moan about being held up for a few hours at a port. We have it better than many others right now!


Terry at no time in my life has there ever been no wars, starvation, genocide, or something horrible going on somewhere in the world. Yes the comparison you offer is stark, but if we were to refrain from “moaning” every time something nasty was going on on our planet then we would never be able to highlight injustices that are going on all around us.
I am sure that those who have endured hours of delay will concur that their inconvenience is inconsequential in comparison to what’s going on elsewhere in our world, but that does not and should not preclude them from complaining about what happened to them.

As for the port boss, I just happened to pick that one out of many online. There are many others which draw the same conclusions, who are not employed within  any of the ports involved.


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## st3v3 (Jul 24, 2022)

Fisherman said:


> There‘s loads online, I just took this one Steve
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The only thing I can see is different Is having to stamp the passport. They had to be checked before...

I think it's other incompetence that they can hide while also having a good remoaner rant. I don't know who "they" is, but I'm assuming the port because they wanted a load of government money to build extra booths but didn't get it.

If it were genuine it would affect every journey, by every means, though every border. It's simply not, so hence I call b0ll0x.


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## Fisherman (Jul 24, 2022)

st3v3 said:


> The only thing I can see is different Is having to stamp the passport. They had to be checked before...
> 
> I think it's other incompetence that they can hide while also having a good remoaner rant. I don't know who "they" is, but I'm assuming the port because they wanted a load of government money to build extra booths but didn't get it.
> 
> If it were genuine it would affect every journey, by every means, though every border. It's simply not, so hence I call b0ll0x.


It wasn’t just Dover, the tunnel was affected, and today Felixstowe is the worse affected. I don’t know all of the ins and outs, but I am sure many who have been severely inconvenienced are brexit supporters. Today there was over 1,500 lorries parked up. I would think that the checks involved for them would be much more time consuming.
If you think it’s Bollox, that’s fine Steve.


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## barryd (Jul 24, 2022)

st3v3 said:


> The only thing I can see is different Is having to stamp the passport. They had to be checked before...
> 
> I think it's other incompetence that they can hide while also having a good remoaner rant. I don't know who "they" is, but I'm assuming the port because they wanted a load of government money to build extra booths but didn't get it.
> 
> If it were genuine it would affect every journey, by every means, though every border. It's simply not, so hence I call b0ll0x.



Its the same at airports which is why there have been longer queues there also, its not just stamping a passport, its checking people, what they are carrying and their details etc from a "third country". This is the French doing what they do for all third countries, controlling their borders.  Even if it takes just a minute longer per person the shear volume of traffic which is tens of thousands of people a day is enough to cause this kind of chaos without putting the proper resources that they knew would be required in place.  It will be magnified also by freight which now has a mammoth amount of paper work to comply with. Thankfully now much of it is prepared away from the ports but if its not right then it causes further delays.

The clue was in the name why it worked perfectly before. "Free movement" we no longer have it.

Not so smug now I bet, except she probably is


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1551206394686218240


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## Fisherman (Jul 24, 2022)

barryd said:


> Its the same at airports which is why there have been longer queues there also, its not just stamping a passport, its checking people, what they are carrying and their details etc from a "third country". This is the French doing what they do for all third countries, controlling their borders.  Even if it takes just a minute longer per person the shear volume of traffic which is tens of thousands of people a day is enough to cause this kind of chaos without putting the proper resources that they knew would be required in place.  It will be magnified also by freight which now has a mammoth amount of paper work to comply with. Thankfully now much of it is prepared away from the ports but if its not right then it causes further delays.
> 
> The clue was in the name why it worked perfectly before. "Free movement" we no longer have it.
> 
> ...


My mate landed in Palma on Friday Barry. It took them nearly two hours to get through passport control. Everyone’s passport was looked at carefully, and stamped. In previous years you only had to flash it at the officials, and it normally took about 30 minutes.


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## Derekoak (Jul 25, 2022)

It will only get worse later this year when the Eu  brings in biometric controls for all third countries, which probably mean you must leave your vehicle.


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## brian c (Jul 25, 2022)

I live 7 miles from Dover. The traffic is normal for us


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## Costers (Jul 25, 2022)

I certainly don’t think it’s incompetence oof the French. They have extra work today which if it takes time so what? It’s not like the passengers are in France. Might be different if the checks were done on the French side. Don’t think they would allow the port of Calais to clog up.


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## shortcircuit (Jul 25, 2022)

Fisherman said:


> My mate landed in Palma on Friday Barry. It took them nearly two hours to get through passport control. Everyone’s passport was looked at carefully, and stamped. In previous years you only had to flash it at the officials, and it normally took about 30 minutes.


I assume they are being stamped as a result of the 90 days in 180 and that is your record as well as bigbrother?


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## Wooie1958 (Jul 26, 2022)

On a simialr theme when we was coming back from France through Calais port back in May we had a fair old wait to get through passport control and check in.

Going out 4 weeks earlier it took us the best part of a couple of hours to get through Dover check in etc. etc. because the port was gridlocked so on the return given the Dover experience we arrived at Calais in plenty of time to find that there was only about a dozen or so vehicles in front of us waiting to go through and there was only 2 kiosks open at the new entrance.

Each vehicle was taking forever, in fact long enough for me to turn the engine off each time we moved up 1 vehicle length.

Check in, passport control, another check in, then security check was all done in slow motion, thankfully we got wavied through the customs shed which we had to drive through, the 2 young women in there just stepped back so i carried on through.

Passports got looked at by both people in the kiosk, then scanned, then looked at again, then looked at us, then stamped, then looked at again, then looked at us again and then returned to me ( driver ) singularly

The young girl at the queue lanes told us we`d only just made it and to arrive earlier next time, i said we`d been there 2 1/2 hours but that drew a blank look on her face so i left it at that and we boarded, within a few minutes we set off.

Got out of Dover without any checks,  the guys on the little platform by the customs sheds just blanked us so i drove through and away up the hill.


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## Rodders1234 (Jul 26, 2022)

We came back to the UK last Thursday (just before the school holidays) and we were delayed over 2 hours in Calais. Reason only 2 UK border control kiosks in operation, short staffed! No problem with the French passport control. Missed our ferry and had to get on the next one.


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## myvanwy (Jul 26, 2022)

That sort of answers the questions. Same both ways. Perhaps move the border checks to the actual countries as suggested in this thread.


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## barryd (Jul 26, 2022)

myvanwy said:


> That sort of answers the questions. Same both ways. Perhaps move the border checks to the actual countries as suggested in this thread.



I Dont think that would be popular. Wasnt our borders being moved to France part of the 2003 Le Touquet agreement that saw the then migrant crisis drop from 80000 a year to 30000 as a result?  I believe it also required a lot of security investment also.


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## myvanwy (Jul 26, 2022)

Seems to work ok for airports? Iv not flown for a while so I dont know how much scrutiny is applied to your passport on entering EU country, prior to getting stamped.


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## Cass (Jul 27, 2022)

We drove from Yorkshire to Dover on the 12th sailed on the morning of the 13th no hold ups, not many on the ferry straight off at the other end


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## myvanwy (Jul 31, 2022)

myvanwy said:


> Lets see in one or two weeks time when the flow should be reversed. We are able to suit ourselves these days regarding travel so returned before the "rush". One thing I will mention is, when we got to Calais tunnel port and went through the return booths, I pulled up for the checks at the French booth but the operative was sound asleep. Chair reclined and feet upon desk. I revved the engine a bit but no sign of life. Do I hit the horn?  SWMBO says, look inside, there are two more sound asleep. Stuff this, I proceeded to the Brit booth and mentioned to the guard, "they are fast asleep back there" to which he replied "Yep, we had heard that laughing. Now I need to go and check my passport as I cant remember if it got stamped on return.


Just remembered to check passport, not stamped.   Looks like they had the last laugh. Booked to go back over Sept. See what happens.


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## REC (Jul 31, 2022)

myvanwy said:


> Just remembered to check passport, not stamped.   Looks like they had the last laugh. Booked to go back over Sept. See what happens.


Bring a copy of your return booking to prove the date you went through? Someone...in here?...can't remember...said that they aren't strictly reinforcing the 90 days, but I have also been told they are! IMHO it's best to take proof with you ...just in case!


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## myvanwy (Aug 1, 2022)

Also looked at my tracker data to print off. It shows we crossed at Boulogne ? Nowhere near the Tunnel. What's going on there?


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## Deleted member 24156 (Aug 2, 2022)

Pretty obvious really, have you tried counting up to 90 on your fingers then subtracting any number between 0 and 90. Then asking how long you staying in French. No wonder there are queues.


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