Digital Carnets are proving a success

The good news is that the transition has been incredibly positive. During the first month alone, more than 5,200 transactions were successfully processed using UK-issued digital Carnets across the UK, EU, Switzerland and Norway.

In fact, following the successful roll out, countries such as France, Greece, and the Netherlands have been reported to have rejected paper Carnets.

One of the biggest questions we've been asked is whether businesses should still be carrying a paper contingency Carnet "just in case". The answer is no for digital-only journeys.

Paper Carnets should now only be used where:

• your paper Carnet was issued before 1 June 2026
• you are travelling to a paper country
• you are arriving from a paper country

Another encouraging development is that digital Carnets are already being used for temporary imports into the UK from countries that haven't yet fully adopted the system themselves, including Japan, India, China, Australia, Canada, Serbia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Moldova and Ukraine.

While these countries aren't yet accepting digital Carnets for their own exports, they're already embracing the new process when trading with digital-enabled countries, showing just how quickly the system is gaining momentum.

As more businesses begin using Digital Carnets, we've identified a few simple tips that can help make your journey even smoother.

1. Check your goods declarations carefully

Ensure the goods (item numbers) are declared in the correct section of the travel. We’ve seen goods declared incorrectly in the 'items NOT being re-exported/re-imported'. This creates a discrepancy within the customs system, as it reports NO items being cleared.

2. Don't forget both QR codes

Ensure both the validation and exportation QR codes are consumed upon first use – overseas customs can reject if the Carnet has not been validated.

3. When using paper and digital for mixed itineraries:

Departure from UK:

A.    If not returning to the UK between trips of digital and paper countries = validation + exportation must be presented for BOTH Carnets. 

B.    If returning to the UK before travelling to next destination = only the Carnet type required for that leg of journey should be presented for validation + exportation. The other can be processed on the next leg of the journey.

Return to the UK: 

Present whichever GB Carnet(s) contains foreign customs endorsements.

4. Don't use screenshots

Customs officers need to see your eATA declarations (travels/QR codes). 

• Present it within the ICC ATA mobile app,
• a QR code saved to Apple/Google wallet, or using
• a QR code printout. This should contain the QR code, transaction and cancellation codes. This is recommended for following ports: Sevington, Holyhead, LHR Customs House, Inventory Linked Ports. It should also be noted that the driver does not have a way to check the declaration has been processed/ consumed by Customs other than contacting their office for confirmation.

5. Creating QR Codes/ travels for use in the EU (Import Re-Export)

• If driving, create your travel for the country of entry into the EU (e.g. if driving to Germany but entry to EU is via Calais, create travel for France).
• If flying, create the travel for country of your destination.

6. Creating QR Codes/ travels for TRANSIT when crossing multiple EU member-states:

• Create transit for country of entry (e.g France for Calais)– both QR codes ‘transit open’ & ‘transit closed’ will show the country of entrance, but can be used in any EU member state. ‘Transit open’ should be shown at entry point into EU, ‘Transit closed’ should be shown at exit point out of the EU. Transit travels do not need to be declared for movements between the EU member states.
• The route should be included in the ‘Via location’ section.

Digital Carnets continue to evolve, and we've already submitted a number of enhancement requests to the International Chamber of Commerce to improve both the app and customs systems.

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback. If you've used a Digital Carnet and have suggestions that could improve the experience, please let our team know - we'll continue to share customer feedback with the ICC as the system develops.