Road haulage chiefs have warned that small businesses could stop trading in Europe if customs checks after Brexit are too complex.

James Hookham, deputy chief executive officer of the Kent-based Freight Transport Association, told a House of Lords select committee the government needed to set out its plans for any new arrangements at ports and other entry points soon to enable businesses to prepare and adjust.

And there was a claim that other EU member states were “months behind” in their preparations for the UK leaving and were only just recognising the implications that would have for their own customs arrangements.

Mr Hookham told peers on the EU External Affairs Select Committee:

“A lot of smaller businesses could simply decide that the costs and the challenge and inconvenience are simply not worth it and will cease to trade with their European neighbours and that would be a retrograde step.”

“We have yet to see any clarity around what the government contingency plans are for a hard or relatively hard Brexit. We need to make sure that these issues are recognised by the other 27 member states because we need reciprocal or equivalent arrangements. Delays at cross-channel ports [in the EU] would affect the UK as well.”

He said other member states were behind the UK in terms of their thinking about new customs arrangements “by about nine months” and needed to recognise that Brexit was a problem for them, too.

“It has only recently become apparent that there is a job of work to be done. That realisation has only just dawned on the 27 member states.”

And he warned that there needed to be a lead-in period so businesses could properly understand what they needed to do under any new customs arrangements.

Asked if the transitional period after next April would be long enough, he told the committee: “Not if the automation required on the scale that it could be and if there are significant requirements placed on EU members.”

“We are very clear about what we want and that is a reduction of the friction and as close to the same arrangements as we have already.”

He said there were concerns about plans to recruit more customs officers as that implied there would be more manual checks on vehicles - a process that could take longer.

Research has indicated there could be an additional delay of two minutes per vehicle could result in tailbacks of 29 miles at borders during peak times - something that MPs say would cause "Operation Stack on steroids.