T1 & T2 Clearance Services
Transit declarations raised under our own guarantee, opened at the right office of departure and watched until the movement discharges. Most go in within minutes of your paperwork reaching us.
Transit, and Everything That Travels With It
A transit movement rarely travels on its own. There is usually an export entry behind it, an import entry waiting in front of it and a safety and security filing alongside it. We raise all of them, so nothing ends up pointing at a reference that was never created.
Transit Declarations
T1, T2 and T2F movements lodged in NCTS under our guarantee.
Offices of Departure
Movements opened for Dover, Eurotunnel and Sevington traffic.
Entry at Destination
The import declaration that ends the movement and releases the goods.
Export Before Transit
The export entry raised first, then linked to the transit reference.
Safety and Security
Entry summary declarations for movements arriving in Great Britain.
ENS Into the EU
ICS2 filings for consignments crossing into the European Union.
The Truck As Well
We arrange the movement as well as declaring it, through our carrier network.
All Customs Work
Where transit sits in the wider clearance picture.
T1, T2 and the Difference Between Them
Both are transit declarations lodged in the same system. What separates them is the customs status of the goods inside the trailer.
T1, External Transit
A T1 carries goods that have not been released into free circulation in the territory they are crossing. Duty and import VAT are suspended while they travel, not cancelled, and the amount at risk sits against a guarantee until the movement ends. Anything leaving Great Britain for the European Union under transit is a T1, because GB goods are non-Union goods once they cross.
T2, Internal Transit
A T2 carries goods that already hold Union status and keeps that status intact while they cross a third country. The classic case here is the land bridge: an Irish load running Dublin to Holyhead, across England and back into the European Union at Calais, arriving with its status preserved rather than being treated as an import.
T2F, the One People Miss
T2F is the variant for movements to, from or between special fiscal territories, places such as the Canary Islands that sit inside the customs territory but outside the VAT area. Raising a plain T2 instead gets the goods questioned on arrival, so we check the status of the destination before we lodge anything.
Where Transit Runs, and On What System
Transit is not a UK invention. It is a shared procedure with shared rules, and the UK signed up to it in its own right.
The Common Transit Convention
The CTC lets one declaration and one guarantee cover a journey through several customs territories instead of a new formality at every frontier. The contracting parties are the European Union, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the three most recent joiners, Georgia, Moldova and Montenegro. If your route stays inside that group, one movement can carry the goods the whole way.
NCTS and the Move to Phase 6
Declarations are lodged in the New Computerised Transit System. The UK moved to NCTS Phase 6 on 1 June 2026, replacing Phase 5 on both the Great Britain and Northern Ireland services. Phase 6 keeps what Phase 5 brought in, six digit commodity codes, house level consignments and electronic presentation of the movement reference at the frontier, and adds the option, in countries that have opted in, of carrying entry summary data inside the transit declaration.
Guarantees, Offices and Discharge
These are the parts that decide whether a movement is a formality or a problem, and what each one means for whoever is paying for the load.
Comprehensive and Individual Guarantees
Every movement has to be secured for the duty and import VAT at risk, because for the length of the journey nobody has paid anything. There are two ways to do that, and the choice has a direct cash effect.
- A comprehensive guarantee is authorised by HMRC, backed by a bank or insurer, and covers many movements at once against a rolling reference amount. It frees up cash, but the headroom is finite, so one high value load can take a large bite out of it.
- An individual guarantee secures a single movement, as a cash deposit or an undertaking from a guarantor. It costs more per journey and touches nobody else's headroom, which is why it suits high value one offs.
- We raise movements under our own comprehensive guarantee, and arrange an individual guarantee where the value at risk makes that the sensible route.
Offices of Departure, Transit and Destination
The office of departure is where the movement is opened, the goods are presented and the time limit for the journey is set. Offices of transit sit where the goods enter a new customs territory. The office of destination is where the vehicle has to turn up before that time limit expires, so the arrival can be notified and the control results sent back. Naming the wrong office is a common cause of trouble, because a driver sent somewhere that is not an approved office cannot present the goods at all.
Discharge, and Why It Is the Only Thing That Counts
A movement is discharged when destination confirms the goods arrived and departure accepts that confirmation. Until then the declaration is live and the guarantee is still committed. Getting the MRN issued is the easy half of transit. Getting the movement closed is the half that protects the money.
What Happens When a Movement Is Not Discharged
If destination never reports the arrival, the office of departure opens an enquiry and asks the holder of the procedure for alternative proof that the goods got there, normally a certified copy of the destination customs entry or an endorsed accompanying document. There is a deadline on that request.
- No acceptable proof means a customs debt raised against the holder of the procedure.
- The guarantee is drawn on for the duty and import VAT that were suspended.
- The committed amount stays locked while the enquiry runs, quietly reducing how much else you can move.
- We watch open movements and chase the arrival, rather than finding out weeks later that one never closed.
Opened in Ashford, Closed Where It Lands
Our office is in Ashford, the same town as the Sevington inland border facility, which acts as a government office of departure for outbound journeys and an office of destination for inbound ones. It handles Common Transit Convention movements, ATA and TIR carnets and CITES checks for traffic using Dover and Eurotunnel, and separately runs as a Defra border control post around the clock.
Routing matters. Dover Western Docks came off the inland border facility list in January 2025, and oversized or hazardous vehicles go to Stop 24 instead. Sending a driver to the wrong site costs a tacho break at best and a sailing at worst, so we say where the vehicle stops before it leaves.
- Send the load details. Invoice, packing list, value, route and where the goods are starting from.
- We set the movement up. T1, T2 or T2F, the correct offices, the time limit and the guarantee.
- MRN to the driver. Sent to you and the haulier, ready for presentation at the frontier.
- We track it. Offices of transit crossed, arrival notified, control results back.
- We confirm discharge. You get told when the movement is closed and the guarantee is released.
Why Hauliers Put Their Transit Work Here
We run trucks as well as file declarations, so we have opened movements standing in the yard at three in the morning and we know what a delayed MRN actually costs.
Transit Guarantee
Movements are raised under our guarantee, so you do not need your own authorisation to move goods under transit.
Current System
Filing on NCTS Phase 6, live across the UK service since 1 June 2026, not on last year's rules.
Movements Opened
Ferries sail through the night. Transit declarations get raised through the night to match.
Authorised Operator
We hold AEOC authorisation and are members of BIFA and FIATA.
Transit and T1 FAQs
When do I need a T1 instead of a normal customs entry?
When the goods need to travel through or into a customs territory before they are cleared there. A T1 moves them under duty suspension to the place where clearance will actually happen, which is useful when the destination is inland, when the buyer wants to clear the goods themselves, or when the load is going through one country to reach another.
Who is legally on the hook while the goods are moving?
The holder of the procedure, which is whoever the movement was opened by. If the movement is not discharged, that is the party customs pursue for the suspended duty and VAT, and the guarantee behind the movement is what pays it. It is worth knowing whose guarantee is being used before a load runs, not afterwards.
Do I need my own comprehensive guarantee?
Not to use us. We raise movements under our own guarantee. If you move transit regularly and in volume, your own comprehensive guarantee authorisation can make sense because it removes a dependency, but it takes an HMRC application and a financial guarantee from a bank or insurer, so most operators start by using a broker's.
What happens if a T1 is never closed?
The office of departure starts an enquiry and asks the holder of the procedure for alternative proof that the goods arrived. A certified copy of the destination clearance usually settles it. If nothing acceptable turns up, a customs debt is raised and the guarantee is called on, so the practical answer is to fix an unclosed movement quickly rather than hope.
Can you open a transit movement somewhere other than a port?
Yes, provided the goods can be presented at an approved office of departure. Inland border facilities and a number of airports work for this. As an example, we have opened T1 movements from Teesside International Airport (GB MEE) for delivery down to Bournemouth. Tell us the collection point and we will confirm where the goods have to be presented.
Does the transit declaration cover safety and security too?
Not by default. Transit and safety and security are separate obligations, though NCTS Phase 6 allows entry summary data to be carried inside the transit declaration in countries that have opted in. Where that does not apply, an entry summary declaration still has to be filed, and for the EU side that means ICS2.
Get the movement opened and closed properly
Send us the route, the value and the collection point, and we will tell you which transit document it needs and where the driver has to present.