Human handled freight suspended by France due to mutant Coronavirus

Britain moved fast this week plunging 18 million people that live in London, South East and Eastern England into Tier 4. This included a blanket ban on International travel as well as a stay at home order. Now, various countries have started to impose travel bans from the UK but notably on top of the travel ban France have suspended human handled freight for at least 48 hours as of midnight Sunday.

The human handled freight suspension is notable as it’s the first time we’ve seen direct freight bans as opposed to human travel bans due to the global pandemic. Previously there have been severe delays but not outright bans.

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, and the Netherlands have already suspended travel from the UK, Sweden is likely to follow soon. Largely, it would be irrelevant for those in Tier 4 areas but also blocks those from Tier 1, 2 and 3 from travel (or related Tiers for Scotland and Wales). The big difference with France is the suspension of human handled freight.

This is all in response to the new fast spreading mutated strain of the Coronavirus which prompted Tier 4 in the UK in the first place. Whilst the new strain has already been seen in Italy, countries are desperate to stop widespread importation of the new strain, hence the fast response and new travel and freight bans.

So what is human handled freight? Well pretty much it is likely to be considered anything sent by regular courier and mail services. It allows for freight which isn’t handled by humans such as container traffic to continue. However if you’ve recently shipped a parcel via courier or mail or if you are about to then it’s likely it won’t be going to France before Christmas.

France have said that the next two days will be used to come up with a coordinated response and a new testing regieme in partnership with their EU partners.

We’ve yet to see a response from couriers or the Royal Mail. We also don’t know but suspect that packages destined for France through eBay Global Shipping may also be impacted.