Brittany Ferries has urged firms to send unaccompanied trailers via ports on the western channel designed to receive driverless loads, as demand rises.

The ferry company said the need for drivers to provide negative Covid tests had driven the trend for unaccompanied loads travelling from the continent to UK ports such as Portsmouth and Poole.

Ferry firms have reported reduced freight volumes in January as a consequence of Brexit concerns and stockpiling.

However, Brittany Ferries said the proportion of unaccompanied units is already much higher than in previous years.

Simon Wagstaff, Brittany Ferries freight director, said there were also financial benefits in going driverless: “We know of one large haulage operation in Ireland, for example, that has organised reciprocal arrangements with another in Spain, dropping off and picking up trailers for each other,” he said.

“That’s a cost-effective way of doing business.”

Last year, Forth Ports launched an unaccompanied freight ferry terminal at Tilbury2, which it said would help reduce the spread of Covid-19.

In December, the group reported a 20% increase in unaccompanied freight volumes between Tilbury and Zeebrugge.