Gibraltar's Border Fence Is Gone: Days on the Rock Now Count Towards Your Drivers' 90

Gibraltar is British, so it is easy to assume a day there is a day out of the Schengen Area. Since 15 July 2026, that assumption is wrong. Under the new UK–EU treaty on Gibraltar, the border fence with Spain has come down, Schengen checks have moved to Gibraltar's port and airport, and the UK Government has confirmed that time spent in Gibraltar counts towards the 90/180-day limit for UK citizens who do not live there. For any haulier running loads to the Rock, it is a change worth catching before a driver's count catches you out.

What Changed on 15 July

The treaty was signed in Brussels on 14 July 2026 and began to apply provisionally the next day. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo oversaw the removal of the last pieces of the fence. The treaty requires all physical barriers to the movement of people at the land border to go, and says people may cross it without border checks, whatever their nationality.

The checks have not disappeared — they have moved. Gibraltar's port and airport are now border crossing points. Travellers pass Gibraltar's own checks first, then Spanish officers carry out the Schengen entry and exit checks. The UK Foreign Office confirms this includes registration in the Entry/Exit System (EES) where it applies, and Gibraltar's broadcaster GBC reported in September that EES checks continue at Gibraltar Airport for non-EU visitors.

Gibraltar Days Now Count Towards the 90

The UK Government set this out before the treaty was finalised. In a written answer in the House of Lords in June 2025, Baroness Chapman, answering for the Government, said that “time spent in Gibraltar will count towards the European Union's 90 in 180 requirement”. The House of Commons Library confirms that for UK citizens who are not resident in Gibraltar, time there is calculated as part of the 90/180-day allowance.

Gibraltar residents are treated differently. Their time in Gibraltar does not count towards the allowance and they are exempt from EES registration, though the 90/180 limit still applies to their stays elsewhere in the Schengen Area. Residence is shown with a Gibraltar identity card or civilian registration card. The Gibraltar Government has already had to issue guidance after some residents were wrongly registered in EES at Spanish border posts, so a Gibraltar-resident driver should always carry that card.

What It Means for a Typical Run

For a UK-passport driver arriving by road, the trip to Gibraltar now looks like any other journey inside the Schengen Area. The driver enters Schengen at the Channel, crosses France and Spain, and drives into Gibraltar without a border check. None of those crossings stops the count. The 90/180 clock only stops when the driver leaves the Schengen Area — usually on the way back through France.

A driver who leaves the lorry in Gibraltar and flies home goes through Gibraltar's checks and then Spanish Schengen exit checks at the airport, where e-gates are available for travellers already registered in EES. Either way, every day from entering Schengen to leaving it counts — including the days on the Rock.

Goods and Lorries: The Customs Side

The treaty also puts Gibraltar into a customs union with the EU, which removes the need for routine checks on goods at the land border, although customs authorities can still carry out checks. For now, goods enter and leave Gibraltar only by land. Consignments are cleared at designated customs posts in Spain — La Línea, Algeciras and Sagunto — travel on to Gibraltar under transit procedures, and are presented to HM Customs Gibraltar at its British Lines Road unit. Goods from the UK and other non-EU countries go through sanitary and phytosanitary checks where they first enter the EU, for example at Calais.

The treaty's road transport chapter covers the transit of goods by road between the UK and Gibraltar through the EU, and sets requirements for drivers, including a Certificate of Professional Competence and drivers' hours and tachograph rules. The Gibraltar Government has published detailed technical notices on the customs union and transit, and operators should check them before quoting for Gibraltar work.

Provisional, but in Force

The treaty is being applied provisionally and has not yet been ratified. In the UK, the first 21-day parliamentary objection period ends on 22 October 2026. In the EU, the European Parliament's committees are still considering it, with an indicative plenary vote on 14 December 2026, after which the Council decides. None of that changes the rules at the border today: the fence is gone, the checks have moved, and the days count now.

What UK Hauliers Should Do

The Bottom Line

The Gibraltar treaty is good news for anyone who has sat in the queue at La Línea. But the same change that removed the fence also removed Gibraltar as a place outside the Schengen count. A British territory it remains; a break from the 90/180 rule it no longer is.

If your drivers go to Gibraltar, those days now count. Make sure your records say so.