Europa Road launches new service for businesses trading with Republic of Ireland

Part of international road freight provider Europa Worldwide Group, Europa Road has invested over £1m in its infrastructure in Ireland to establish a dedicated team in Dublin and a specialist customs brokerage service to support the new service.

From June 2024, Europa Flow, a service which ships goods using DDP incoterms, will be available to all British businesses trading with Ireland, allowing them to better serve and grow their customers.

Under these rules, the seller assumes all responsibilities and costs for delivering the goods to the named place of destination. The seller must pay both export and import formalities, fees, duties and taxes.

The Office for National Statistics estimates that British exports of goods to the Republic of Ireland amounted to £28bn in 2023. Europa Flow has successfully delivered over 300,000 DDP consignments to mainland Europe, offering a unique combination of DDP, postponed VAT accounting and anticipated declarations.

In turn, the service aims to offer faster transit times, lower costs, and no administrative headaches for British businesses.

Andrew Baxter, chief executive of Europa Worldwide Group, said: “A recent report stated that Britain is still exporting fewer goods than before Brexit, with volume being around 15% below records registered in 2018.

“With Ireland being Britain’s fourth largest export market, the increased complexity associated with the customs border, is preventing the seamless transportation of goods for British businesses.

“This is impacting transit times, increasing the amount of customs paperwork required, and could have costly and time-critical implications. These customs complexities pose a significant extra burden to all businesses – and particularly those SMEs who may be less likely to have the necessary resources and expertise to handle the additional paperwork.

“This is why we launched Europa Flow – to serve companies moving goods between Britain and Europe, providing a seamless transportation of goods between the two regions. Having initially launched Europa Flow in 2021 for mainland EU countries, the service – the first of its kind in Ireland – is now being launched to GB-Ireland trade.”

A manufacturer based in Glasgow who recently trialled Europa Flow on its exports to Ireland, said: “The new DDP service from Europa has been well received by our current Irish customers, in that the admin burden imposed on them has significantly decreased. It has also reopened some customer conversations that have been closed since Brexit occurred.”

Europa Road, which operates Britain’s largest European groupage ‘1Hub’ in Dartford, now ships more than 50% of its consignments using this service. The 1Hub, which is strategically located close to the Dartford Crossing, provides scheduled, daily, road transport trunking, which allows British customers’ shipments to connect to its 42 partner hubs in mainland Europe.

Adrian Redmile, branch and sales director at Europa Worldwide Group said: “Despite the challenges that were presented as trade regulations changed post-Brexit, there is a cost-effective and efficient solution to ensuring seamless movement of goods. Over the last three years we have invested over £1m in our Irish infrastructure, more than £5m in Europa Flow in Europe and launched a Money Back Guarantee to better support British customers.

“Europa Flow now provides a truly seamless service into Ireland for businesses across Great Britain. These companies recognise that they cannot gamble their reputations by risking delays to deliveries emanating from incomplete paperwork, or disputes over the payment of VAT and customs duties.

“The service is proven to remove these issues and return the market to pre-Brexit transit times. We are also the only provider with sites in Britain and in Ireland offering a Money Back Guarantee on all Europa Flow shipments. This unique offer will ensure full refunds for consignments not delivered on time.”