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Ferry booking at OTSL is slot reservation on ferry and Eurotunnel crossings for trailers, road trains and vans, tied to border document preparation. It is for companies moving goods on the EU-United Kingdom route and to Scandinavia that want the slot, the GMR reference and customs joined into one movement before the truck heads for the port.
What it covers
- Slot reservation on Dover-Calais, Dunkirk-Dover and the Eurotunnel (Coquelles-Folkestone)
- Booking to east coast England ports when the route or load calls for it
- Scandinavian ferry reservations from Baltic ports (Sweden, Denmark) for onward distribution
- GMR reference prepared in the GVMS system for the driver
- Vehicle list and manifest required by the ferry operator
- Coordination of the slot with export and import customs clearance
- Matching the crossing window to the delivery booking-in slot in the UK
- Contact with the driver and rebooking when loading runs late
How we do it
We start from the route and the unloading date, not from the ferry itself. We know when the vehicle is due at the consignee, so we pick the crossing and window so the driver does not sit idle on either side of the Channel. Only then do we lock the slot with the operator.
In parallel we prepare the border side. Customs declarations are linked in GVMS to generate the GMR reference, without which the driver will not board a ferry to the United Kingdom. The driver receives the reference and the vehicle list before reaching the port, not in the queue at the gate.
If loading slips or the operator reschedules, we amend the booking and make sure the border documents still match the vehicle and the cargo. One person runs the slot, the clearance and the driver, so information does not fall between companies.
Limits of the service (what it does NOT cover / what to know)
We reserve the crossing and prepare the documents, but boarding and border checks are decided by the ferry operator and the authorities, under the rules published by the UK government on GOV.UK. Cancelled sailings in a storm and peak-season queues are carriage risk, not our error. The stake is simple: a wrong vehicle list or a missing valid GMR means a turn-back at the gate, a lost slot and a delivery pushed to the next sailing, which on time-critical cargo is a real loss. That is why we close the documents before the port, not at the last minute.
