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A 'perfect storm' of industrial action, roadworks and poor weather conditions threatened to overwhelm Dover port early this week, as lorries were forced to queue for hours on the M20. A strike led by officers at ferry operator SeaFrance piled the pressure onto other ferry operators at the port and forced Kent Police to roll out Operation Stack twice in three days to avoid meltdown.

As MT went to press, Dover port was warning that if the strike continued Operation Stack would have to be  launched again and that freight operators should make alternative arrangements or delay journeys. A SeaFrance spokesman says it takes on average 2,500 trucks a day and that these were threatening to overwhelm its competitors.

He adds: "The volume of traffic is so great now that if you take one ferry operator out of the equation, the other three struggle to cope. The situation has worsened because of the weather and roadworks in Dover starting today." Kent Police were forced to open up phase two of Operation Stack on Saturday night after all 812 spaces of phase one were filled by lorries. The emergency parking procedure was lifted on Sunday morning.

A port spokesman says SeaFrance is responsible for 30% of all freight traffic moved at the port. He adds: "There's only a finite amount of capacity at peak times there's no spare capacity at the port and the tunnel. It doesn't take much to push us over the edge." The Highways Agency's plan to use a moveable barrier on the M20  to cordon off parked lorries from other traffic during Operation Stack is due to start in July.