Not a re-entry but a reboot
Contrary to some early headlines, the United Kingdom never left the Common Transit Convention (CTC) when it exited the EU; it acceded in its own right in 2019 and has remained a contracting party ever since. The key date this year was 21 January 2025, when all 38 members – including the UK – switched to the final-state rules of the New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) Phase 5. The upgrade ushers in the biggest procedural shake-up at European land and sea borders in two decades, replacing paper forms with real-time digital messaging and synchronising risk-management data across customs authorities.
What Phase 5 actually changes
Four core tweaks matter to hauliers and forwarders:
- Paper TAD retired: The once-ubiquitous Transit Accompanying Document is no longer mandatory. Drivers instead present a digital Movement Reference Number (MRN) – a barcode or QR code on a phone is sufficient – to customs officers at the point of exit or entry.
- Commodity codes have been tightened: Declarations must now carry a minimum six-digit Harmonized System code, pushing tariff classification work upstream into the exporter’s system rather than at the border.
- Multiple-house consignments (MHC): Several consignments destined for different importers can be grouped under one master MRN, eliminating duplication for consolidators.
- Electronic Office-of-Incident: Any en-route mishaps – seal breaks, route deviations, temperature excursions – are logged inside NCTS rather than on paper forms, and remedial authorisations are communicated digitally.
HMRC’s web portal and most commercial software packages were patched months in advance, and the new API layer finally allows declarations to be sent in JSON rather than the legacy EDIFACT syntax. Notably, the interface now integrates directly with the UK’s Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS), enabling a single submission to fulfill both safety and security requirements and CTC transit formalities.
On-the-ground impact
Early anecdotal evidence from ferry operators at Dover and hauliers using the Le Shuttle terminal suggests that removing the TAD print-station step has already shortened vehicle dwell times, although authoritative data sets will take a few months to compile. Driver training has proven straightforward: showing an MRN barcode at the booth mirrors the process used for export safety declarations since 2021. Physical inspection rates – Customs’ “red-lane” checks – should decrease as the system’s risk engine ingests richer commodity and trader history data, freeing capacity for genuinely suspicious consignments.
Broader European context
NCTS Phase 5 went live against a backdrop of rapid geographic expansion. Georgia acceded to the CTC on 1 February 2025, becoming the 39th party and stretching the network’s eastern frontier to the Caucasus. The European Commission is already sketching an NCTS “Phase 6” concept that would piggyback real-time container telemetry and vessel data onto the existing message set, although no formal launch year has been agreed.
Remaining pain points
- Guarantee management: Transit guarantees still immobilise large sums of working capital. Trade bodies want a pan-European, blockchain-style guarantee marketplace that could net off exposures in real time.
- MRN recognition gaps: France, Italy and the Netherlands have not yet switched all roll-on/roll-off inspection posts to MRN scanning, so carriers sometimes still insist on a fallback printed TAD.
- SME readiness: Smaller exporters complain that the richer data requirements demand new software or customs-broker spending. HMRC has promised a dedicated SME help-desk before the Black Friday peak.
Outlook for UK traders
HMRC’s target is to certify another 1,200 Authorised Consignor and Consignee sites by Q4 2025, so that the paperless gains achieved at ports propagate into inland depots and groupage yards. For businesses that embraced automation early, the Phase 5 cut-over already feels like a logical extension of the digital export model introduced after Brexit; for late adopters, it is a sharp nudge to modernise or risk longer wait times. Either way, the UK’s commitment to the CTC provides carriers and shippers with a familiar, EU-aligned transit framework – without reopening the political debate about full customs union membership – and positions the border to handle higher volumes with less friction as e-commerce and nearshoring drive trade flows in the years ahead.