For UK-based airsoft players, waiting for new supplies from your friendly airsoft retailers just got longer and tedious. The retailers say that the build-up at UK ports due to Covid-19 restrictions are causing delays in deliveries. And this is not just airsoft retailers affected as it across the board with high street and online retailers worrying that they may not be able to meet the Holiday demand.

The problem that the UK ports are facing is not unique as other major ports around the world are facing such build-up of shipping containers due to Covid-19 policies, what is compounding the UK’s problems is the end of the Brexit transition period by 31 December 2020 and companies are stockpiling on supplies before new rules set.

Also a problem is a good number of shipping containers that are holding PPEs are held at Felixstowe, the country’s largest port. This stockpile of PPEs is being stored to support the NHS to ensure the frontline health workers have adequate supplies of PPEs to prevent another scenario when there was a lack of PPEs during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. But stored PPE containers are holding up other shipments, leading to delays and the storage of such containers are costing UK taxpayers £1 million a day according to Sky News.

Thus, the airsoft retailers are asking customers who are demanding that their orders be fulfilled for more understanding as things are beyond their control. Scotland-based retailer, Airsoft World, posted on their Facebook page about this problem:

Hi folks! This is a general information message so you all know what's happening in the world as it appears that quite a bit of it is being hidden from public eyes.

Over the past few months, freight has become a nightmare, with costs rising significantly, especially over the past 4-6 weeks. There are various reasons for this, most of it being blamed on 'The Virus' but a lot of this is complete lies.

I've been prompted to post this after receiving two emails today from our freight forwarders in Taiwan and in the UK. These are the people we hire to act as 'on the ground' agents on our behalf to deal with our freight in and out of the UK.

What they told us is very worrying indeed. Basically ALL new freight bookings by sea that are inbound for the UK are blocked until further notice - they believe as far ahead as January. This is because there has been so much mishandling and mismanagement of this countrys' freight infrastructure, we are now pretty much in gridlock for freight movement.
One of the major factors is that our fantastic clown act in Westmonster has stored in excess of 10,000 shipping containers at Felixstowe (our largest and busiest sea freight port) and possibly other ports because they are full of PPE (faulty?Because it's not being issued and the NHS are still screaming for it) that they have no use for at this time. So they have just left it there taking up huge swathes of storage and movement space in the docks at a rental cost of at least a million quid PER DAY - at the busiest time of the year.

We received our last container delivery last week which had sat parked out at sea for three weeks waiting to get in to unload. We have another that's been delayed 4 weeks so far and is apparently unpacking today. Many UK-bound container vessels are being diverted into European ports so they can ease congestion and offload there and then truck it into the UK. So it escalates......the Ferries are backed up now, so is the Channel Tunnel - all trying to get the massive uptake of lorry freight needing to get over the channel. I was there last week and it took almost three hours just to get to the check-in kiosk, a task that would normally take 15mins on a bad day.

THIS IS PRE-BREXIT!

The other seriously worrying factor is that nobody knows what the impact of BREXIT is going to be yet. I doubt the Government has the slightest clue either as they seem to be winging it, much the same way as they've handled COVID so far....

So please take this on board because it is already effecting you, your pocket and your future. The Government isn't doing a great job at all, in fact it's a disaster that's only going to get worse. They don't really care because most are mega-rich and will surf through it all because they all look after each others interests. Who it is effecting is you and I.

Before this turns too much into a political statement, I want to let you all know that we are spending hours, every single day in communication with many freight points trying to get our shipments through by any means we can. Our agents are updating us in real-time - mostly just telling us nothing is improving - so we are on the ball, believe me.
Two things I ask of you:

1. I know you all want your goodies delivered but messaging us every day isn't going to speed it up. In fact it slows us down as we try to answer everyone and quite frankly we've got more urgent work to do. It especially doesn't help when one person messages us the exact same question across all platforms. One will do. We have no reason to delay deliveries, when shipments arrive, we do our very best to get them back out to our customers the very same day ? We do the same with our regular stock orders.

2. We sent a Tweet to Boris Johnson an hour ago, asking him what they are doing about the containers at Felixstowe port. I would very much appreciate it if you could retweet the message so it's definitely noticed and becomes an embarrassment ?

Thanks for reading this, I struggled to keep it this short and without expletives!

More disruptions are expected in terms of supplies come new year. In a news report on the Independent, the UK Major Ports Group, Logistics UK and the UK Chamber of Shipping warned that problems could persist “for some months”.  Airsoft players and the general public should expect even more delays and the possibility of higher prices due to supplies not meeting demand.