Thousands of holiday-makers driving to France found themselves in tailbacks stretching several kilometres outside the Port of Dover on Saturday, 20 December, after the French Police aux Frontières systems used for exit and entry checks crashed for almost four hours. Eurotunnel reported similar outages at its Folkestone terminal, forcing operators to slow the boarding cycle to manual passport inspection.
Port officials said nearly 30,000 cars were expected over the weekend—the highest Christmas getaway on record—making system resilience critical. Once vehicles reached the kiosks, processing by French officers was swift, but the bottleneck created gridlock on the A20 and A2. Dover asked travellers not to arrive more than two hours before sailing, yet many ignored the advice, compounding congestion.
Although ferry companies such as P&O were able to re-allocate missed bookings to later departures, logistics firms transporting just-in-time consignments reported delays of up to six hours, with some drivers forced to stop short of the port to comply with EU tachograph rules.
![French Border-Control IT Failure Causes Multi-Hour Queues at Dover and Channel Tunnel]()
Holiday-makers who want extra peace of mind before reaching Dover or Folkestone can use VisaHQ’s online platform, where real-time French entry requirements, biometric updates, and optional concierge services are kept in one place; the portal at https://www.visahq.com/france/ helps travellers—whether they need a visa or not—anticipate documentation snags and avoid added stress when border technology goes offline.
The incident renews questions about the readiness of border-technology ahead of next year’s full roll-out of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES). British and French industry bodies are urging a joint contingency plan to prevent similar disruptions during the February school-holiday peak.
Corporate mobility teams should advise travellers to build an extra half-day margin into itineraries involving Dover or Eurotunnel until system reliability improves and to retain evidence of delays for insurance or per-diem claims.
Port officials said nearly 30,000 cars were expected over the weekend—the highest Christmas getaway on record—making system resilience critical. Once vehicles reached the kiosks, processing by French officers was swift, but the bottleneck created gridlock on the A20 and A2. Dover asked travellers not to arrive more than two hours before sailing, yet many ignored the advice, compounding congestion.
Although ferry companies such as P&O were able to re-allocate missed bookings to later departures, logistics firms transporting just-in-time consignments reported delays of up to six hours, with some drivers forced to stop short of the port to comply with EU tachograph rules.
Holiday-makers who want extra peace of mind before reaching Dover or Folkestone can use VisaHQ’s online platform, where real-time French entry requirements, biometric updates, and optional concierge services are kept in one place; the portal at https://www.visahq.com/france/ helps travellers—whether they need a visa or not—anticipate documentation snags and avoid added stress when border technology goes offline.
The incident renews questions about the readiness of border-technology ahead of next year’s full roll-out of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES). British and French industry bodies are urging a joint contingency plan to prevent similar disruptions during the February school-holiday peak.
Corporate mobility teams should advise travellers to build an extra half-day margin into itineraries involving Dover or Eurotunnel until system reliability improves and to retain evidence of delays for insurance or per-diem claims.
