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To learn more about our privacy policy Cliquez iciSome 3.6m lorries and containers entered the UK in 2018, using 40 main ports.
The Home Office says they are searched on a "targeted basis" by Border Force staff but would not say how many are checked.
A number of methods are used including carbon dioxide detectors, motion sensors and sniffer dogs.
The government did not explain how lorries are targeted for a search, with a spokeswoman saying it was down to "experienced Border Force staff identifying containers to be searched at port".
Lucy Moreton from the Immigration Services Union, which represents customs and border staff, said the sheer number of containers coming into the UK every day made it impossible to look inside them all.
"We don't have the facility to check the vast majority of freight which arrives in the UK," she said.
And she said it was "certainly the case" that "disconnected freight containers", of which there are "hundreds of thousands" a day, are less likely to be searched unless there is "intelligence to the contrary".
A delivery note called a CMR is filled in for each container by the person who has ordered it, although hauliers can fill it it on a customer's behalf, and a driver should if possible check the load matches the CMR upon collection.
"However," says Heather Wallace of the Road Haulage Association, "quite often, the driver will not actually be present at loading and is totally reliant on the customer."
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