It was early on Tuesday morning that the first British ship arrived at Gothenburg Roro Terminal at Hisingen in Gothenburg.
An unusually large crowd of customs officers, border police and port staff was on site.
During the Christmas weekend, a new free trade agreement between the EU and the UK became clear and a hard Brexit could thus be avoided.
But even a free trade agreement means major changes compared to how it has been before and in the port, preparations have been going on for years.
- Now it will be a major control work and we will see how we make it flow, the goal is that we should not have to disturb our customers at all, but it presupposes that everyone does their part and our challenge is to help our customers make sure has done the necessary preparatory work, says Maria Franke, CEO of Gothenburg Roro Terminal.
Customs has increased
What she is referring to is that there are a number of new routines that both import and export companies must keep track of, permits that must be applied for and forms that must be filled in.
According to Tony Magnusson, head of the control department at the Swedish Customs Region West, most things will work if the companies do what is required in advance.
He himself has staffed up considerably in order to be able to expand the controls of incoming cargo.
- We do not want to disrupt trade unnecessarily and therefore have a lot of equipment to help, a scanner that allows us to x-ray entire trucks and drug and weapon dogs and more, he says.
See how it went when the first ship was checked in the clip above.