Across the Murcia region, dozens of trucks are stalled as they attempt to cross the English Channel. They sit idle in the United Kingdom and along the French stretch near Calais, unable to proceed. The blockage traces back to a shipping company moving vehicles between the two shores, a disruption that has snarled ships, clogged maritime traffic, and even paralysed the Channel Tunnel. Drivers face waits exceeding a full day before boarding arrangements can move forward.
Among the thousands of vehicles stuck, many belong to regional firms such as Primafrio or Resources. Like Christmas Eve 2020, trucks are halted on highway shoulders, creating long delays and missed delivery windows for the goods they carry.
According to sources, on Friday afternoon 15 trucks awaited departure, with reassurance from La Opinion that some drivers endured waits of up to 36 hours. They waited in the UK port of Dover and the ninth in France before crossing into the United Kingdom.
Lockdown revives ‘Christmas 2020 nightmare’
Fenadismer described the current situation as echoing the Christmas crisis experienced by Spanish airlines and other European Union carriers in 2020. France and the United Kingdom have intensified health checks on both sides of the Channel, actions that have triggered traffic backlogs, isolating dozens of carriers for days and preventing many from reaching their homes by Christmas Eve. Fenadismer criticized what it called a negligent act by British authorities and urged the European Commission to intervene to compel urgent measures that would release thousands of European carriers currently immobilized.
The UK continues to be a major destination for fresh produce from the region, even as Brexit has dampened overall market activity. Purchases in the UK have fallen since the transition, yet demand for certain goods remains steady and strategic.
The disruption began weeks earlier when a freight transport company depended on ferries halted Dover-Calais operations. Heavy traffic lines formed across the ports as fleets waited to be accommodated. The Channel Tunnel also faced closures, with Fenadismer reporting queues reaching up to 50 kilometers along the Eurotunnel access routes and at embarkation points.
In the current period, carrier cooldowns have increased as authorities tend to prioritise passenger vehicle movements, a shift that has further restrained freight operations on the Channel corridor.