Motor traders limited to 15 vehicle imports a day

Condor Ferries said that notice had been given and this was a short-term restriction that had been imposed because of a busy month for sailings.

The restriction is impacting both new and used cars sold from showrooms.

Guernsey Motor Trades Association president Robert Cornelius said this was affecting both businesses and customers.

‘This is leading to delays getting new cars here to sell,’ he said, ‘which is obviously having a knock-on effect on stock and on local business.

‘The number of cars that can be dropped at Portsmouth is now restricted, which is leading to much longer lead times and making the logistics of bringing in cars very difficult.’

A Condor Ferries spokesman confirmed the 15-car limit and said suppliers in the UK, Jersey and Guernsey were notified of this change earlier in the summer.

‘Our conventional sailings from the UK to the islands are very busy in September, so availability for trade cars is limited over the next two weeks,’ he said.

‘We are actively exploring other options to alleviate this short-term issue, and have already routed some vehicles to the islands on sailings from Poole.’

However, Mr Cornelius, managing director at Forest Road Garage, said the trade had only learned of the restrictions when problems started to emerge in the middle of August.

He added that he did not have figures for how many cars were normally imported to the Channel Islands on an average day, as this was determined by the requirements of each garage.

But he believed it would have certainly been more than 15.

‘They need to offer a better service to Guernsey,’ he said.

‘In general the air and sea links available to Guernsey residents and business are not really acceptable, and it does not seem the States of Guernsey are doing anything about this.

‘I thought Condor had brought in the Islander to provide additional capacity but it just seems to have replaced the Clipper which seems to be constantly running routes for Brittany Ferries between Ireland and Cherbourg, and not servicing the island.’

Peter Beausire, joint managing director at Le Mont Saint Garage, said the business was also seeing delays in vehicle deliveries.

‘Cars that should have been here early in early September have been put back three or four weeks,’ he said.

‘This means we have less stock on the forecourt and customers are having to wait.’

He said that 15 vehicles a day across the Channel Islands was not many.

‘There are six franchise dealers here and probably twice that in Jersey,’ he said.

‘So 15 cars is roughly one car per dealer per day.

‘We would have been bringing in 20 to 25 cars per month, and some of the other dealers are going to be three or four times bigger. That is obviously going to have an impact.’

Mr Beausire said he did not know when vehicle deliveries would return to normal.