Graemetic Ltd - Inland Shipping

Published by Freight Select Journaal,
September 2006.

Inland shipping is enjoying
a renaissance

Inland shipping may be one of the Netherlands' most traditional forms of freight transport, but to the Dutch Promotion Council for Inland Shipping, or Bureau Voorlichting Binnenvaart (BVB), it's a thriving sector. Graeme Kirk reports

IF there's one sure-fire indicator of the health of an industry it's the number of young people wanting to get involved with it. Using this measure, the future of inland shipping in the Netherlands is assured as the number of pupils studying at Rotterdam's shipping school for the certificates to operate barges has doubled in recent years.

Lisette Booij at BVB is more than happy to take some of the credit.

"Part of our role is to promote inland shipping in schools and I'd like to think some of the newcomers coming into the sector have been attracted by work we have done," she told Freight Select Journaal.

In the past, inland shipping was difficult to get into, but that has changed in recent years. After four years at shipping school, starting even from the age of 16, a student can leave with the certificate required to own and operate a barge. And although the capital investment required to buy a barge can be very high, the banks, it appears, are only too happy to help.

"The market is good and the banks will help newcomers," Booij said. "About 70% of Dutch barges are still family businesses, but these days a barge could just as easily be operated by a first generation operator as by a son who has taken over from his father."

Like RailCargo and Shortsea Shipping Promotion, BVB is part funded by the Dutch government, which contributes half its running costs. The remainder is paid by about 800 barge operating companies, many with only one or maybe two barges, and the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam which also make a contribution.

"The individual company owners only pay a small amount each, but adds up to a lot," Booij said. "As well as our role of educating the Dutch public about inland shipping, we are also charged with promoting the sector to shippers, freight forwarders and manufacturers to try and take freight off the roads.

"We also a have an important role in lobbying the Dutch government where issues affecting the sector arise in new legislation; and through our membership of the Inland Navigation Europe, we also try and influence legislation in the European Parliament."

Of all the modalities, BVB finds itself competing with RailCargo most often as inland shipping is primarily a way of moving large quantities of freight over long distances at reasonably low cost.

"We do compete with rail, but there are more than enough players still using road haulage for us both to lobby," Booij said. "It takes a lot of effort to make a company switch to a new way of moving its goods and both BVB and RailCargo are busy extending the infrastructure required to move goods easily from land to barge or rail along their networks."

Container boost

The increasing flows of containers into the Netherlands' ports from the Far East have been good for the country's inland shippers with many operators buying specialist container barges or simply using existing bulk barges to move containers from the largest terminals to new inland terminals where they can be loaded onto trucks for the final - and on the whole - short journey to the delivery point.

Container traffic by inland shipping makes up approx 10% of the total weight of imports into Dutch ports, but this is because a lot of the containers carried are empty and therefore have no weight. This is reflected in the fact that in terms of numbers, one-third of all containers are transported by inland barges at some stage.

The total weight transported by inland shipping is almost 300 million tonnes, representing a market share of approximately 40%. Indeed half of all cargo that comes into the port of Rotterdam is transported into the hinterland by barges.

"We predict that the current container traffic of 3.1 million TEUs will reach at least 4.5 million TEU and possibly even 7.5 million TEUs by 2020," Booij said.

It's easy to see how this growth can be accommodated as new barges with capacities as high as 500 TEUs are becoming commonplace on the Netherlands' waterways. Obviously they cannot navigate every route, but with a lot of the growth coming from movements between the ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp - as shipping lines rationalise their services - and several locations on the Rhine in Germany, they are ideal.

Another factor helping the sector to grow is the size of the inland waterway network.

"We don't have any problems with traffic jams on the water," Booij said. "Apart from occasional delays at locks, the waterways are free-flowing and we estimate that you could double the traffic without any trace of congestion."

If you consider the whole of Europe, there is a 35,000km network of waterways that has the potential to take a lot of freight of the roads. With routes that link the North Sea to the Black Sea, there is also the opportunity to compete with short sea operators.

Destinations by barge from Rotterdam include France - where a current canal upgrade will soon see Paris accessible by larger vessels - the North and South of Germany, Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic. And with all the import of export paperwork taken care of before the barge sets off, non-stop journeys to the final destination are typical.

While some may consider barges a slow way to transport freight, Booij strongly disagreed.

"It's not as slow as people think," she said. "Most journeys are planned for just-in-time delivery and with little opportunity for hold-ups reliability and punctuality is very good.

"On the main routes between Rotterdam and Antwerp, the journey time is typically six to eight hours, but when you consider how much cargo you can take in one journey that is not an issue.

"And when you consider the amount of time that trains have to wait to keep tracks clear for passenger trains, the transit times are very competitive."

Green credentials

One of the major selling points for inland shipping is its claim to be environmentally friendly. Unlike some of its competing modalities, it is easy to compare shipping and road transport. At its most simple level, a typical modern truck with a 440 horsepower engine has a legal payload of about 40 tonnes, but a barge with a 300 horsepower engine will carry up to 650 tonnes.

The same comparison using the largest barges shows that 3,000 horsepower will power one barge carrying 500 TEU or seven trucks with a capacity of up to 14 TEU.

The heavy oil that most barges still use does come in for criticism because of its high sulphur levels, especially as modern truck engines have been substantially cleaned up in recent years, but inland shipping still wins the debate easily and is also working hard to clean up its act.

"It will take until 2020 to get all the barge engines updated because they last so long," Booij said. "But owners are doing everything they can in the meantime to make their engines as efficient as possible.

"Many are fitting sophisticated computer control systems that will manage the engine speed to meet delivery times so that they never run faster than they have to. The computers will even take account of river currents to make any journey as efficient as possible.

"It's important to remember that there are more than 5,000 barges and that some of them are more than 100 years old, but have been refurbished over the years to maintain up-to-date engines, control systems and living quarters. The engines in barges last about twice as long as those in trucks and it will take some time to get every one of them up to the highest environmental standards."

Another major selling point of inland shipping is the safety factor.

"There are only one or two deaths each year in the sector and its safety record is excellent," Booij said. "This is reinforced by the fact that about 60% of all hazardous materials transported in the Netherlands is moved by barge.

"There are occasional collisions, but they never affect people on the shore."

Like the other organisations representing modalities, BVB also runs a database of available routes to help attract new users to the inland waterway network.

"We started the database 10 years ago, although at that time it only existed on paper," she said. "Now it is available on the internet and is updated four times each year.

"We write to all the major barge operators every three months for their latest routes and make that information easily accessible so that prospective users can see the regular shuttle services and other routes that are available.

"We will help anyone find a way to get their freight flows off the roads and onto the waterways, but as an independent body, our involvement stops at making the links between the shipper and barge operator.

"It is then up to them to discuss commercial terms and come up with a deal that works for both sides."


Published by Freight Select Journaal, September 2006. Inland shipping is enjoying a renaissance Inland shipping may be one of the Netherlands' most traditional forms of freight transport, but to the Dutch Promotion Council for Inland Shipping, or Bureau Voorlichting Binnenvaart (BVB), it's a thriving sector. *Graeme Kirk* reports IF there's one sure-fire indicator of the health of an industry it's the number of young people wanting to get involved with it. Using this measure, the future of inland shipping in the Netherlands is assured as the number of pupils studying at Rotterdam's shipping school for the certificates to operate barges has doubled in recent years. Lisette Booij at BVB is more than happy to take some of the credit. "Part of our role is to promote inland shipping in schools and I'd like to think some of the newcomers coming into the sector have been attracted by work we have done," she told Freight Select Journaal. In the past, inland shipping was difficult to get into, but that has changed in recent years. After four years at shipping school, starting even from the age of 16, a student can leave with the certificate required to own and operate a barge. And although the capital investment required to buy a barge can be very high, the banks, it appears, are only too happy to help. "The market is good and the banks will help newcomers," Booij said. "About 70% of Dutch barges are still family businesses, but these days a barge could just as easily be operated by a first generation operator as by a son who has taken over from his father." Like RailCargo and Shortsea Shipping Promotion, BVB is part funded by the Dutch government, which contributes half its running costs. The remainder is paid by about 800 barge operating companies, many with only one or maybe two barges, and the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam which also make a contribution. "The individual company owners only pay a small amount each, but adds up to a lot," Booij said. "As well as our role of educating the Dutch public about inland shipping, we are also charged with promoting the sector to shippers, freight forwarders and manufacturers to try and take freight off the roads. "We also a have an important role in lobbying the Dutch government where issues affecting the sector arise in new legislation; and through our membership of the Inland Navigation Europe, we also try and influence legislation in the European Parliament." Of all the modalities, BVB finds itself competing with RailCargo most often as inland shipping is primarily a way of moving large quantities of freight over long distances at reasonably low cost. "We do compete with rail, but there are more than enough players still using road haulage for us both to lobby," Booij said. "It takes a lot of effort to make a company switch to a new way of moving its goods and both BVB and RailCargo are busy extending the infrastructure required to move goods easily from land to barge or rail along their networks." Container boost The increasing flows of containers into the Netherlands' ports from the Far East have been good for the country's inland shippers with many operators buying specialist container barges or simply using existing bulk barges to move containers from the largest terminals to new inland terminals where they can be loaded onto trucks for the final - and on the whole - short journey to the delivery point. Container traffic by inland shipping makes up approx 10% of the total weight of imports into Dutch ports, but this is because a lot of the containers carried are empty and therefore have no weight. This is reflected in the fact that in terms of numbers, one-third of all containers are transported by inland barges at some stage. The total weight transported by inland shipping is almost 300 million tonnes, representing a market share of approximately 40%. Indeed half of all cargo that comes into the port of Rotterdam is transported into the hinterland by barges. "We predict that the current container traffic of 3.1 million TEUs will reach at least 4.5 million TEU and possibly even 7.5 million TEUs by 2020," Booij said. It's easy to see how this growth can be accommodated as new barges with capacities as high as 500 TEUs are becoming commonplace on the Netherlands' waterways. Obviously they cannot navigate every route, but with a lot of the growth coming from movements between the ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp - as shipping lines rationalise their services - and several locations on the Rhine in Germany, they are ideal. Another factor helping the sector to grow is the size of the inland waterway network. "We don't have any problems with traffic jams on the water," Booij said. "Apart from occasional delays at locks, the waterways are free-flowing and we estimate that you could double the traffic without any trace of congestion." If you consider the whole of Europe, there is a 35,000km network of waterways that has the potential to take a lot of freight of the roads. With routes that link the North Sea to the Black Sea, there is also the opportunity to compete with short sea operators. Destinations by barge from Rotterdam include France - where a current canal upgrade will soon see Paris accessible by larger vessels - the North and South of Germany, Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic. And with all the import of export paperwork taken care of before the barge sets off, non-stop journeys to the final destination are typical. While some may consider barges a slow way to transport freight, Booij strongly disagreed. "It's not as slow as people think," she said. "Most journeys are planned for just-in-time delivery and with little opportunity for hold-ups reliability and punctuality is very good. "On the main routes between Rotterdam and Antwerp, the journey time is typically six to eight hours, but when you consider how much cargo you can take in one journey that is not an issue. "And when you consider the amount of time that trains have to wait to keep tracks clear for passenger trains, the transit times are very competitive." Green credentials One of the major selling points for inland shipping is its claim to be environmentally friendly. Unlike some of its competing modalities, it is easy to compare shipping and road transport. At its most simple level, a typical modern truck with a 440 horsepower engine has a legal payload of about 40 tonnes, but a barge with a 300 horsepower engine will carry up to 650 tonnes. The same comparison using the largest barges shows that 3,000 horsepower will power one barge carrying 500 TEU or seven trucks with a capacity of up to 14 TEU. The heavy oil that most barges still use does come in for criticism because of its high sulphur levels, especially as modern truck engines have been substantially cleaned up in recent years, but inland shipping still wins the debate easily and is also working hard to clean up its act. "It will take until 2020 to get all the barge engines updated because they last so long," Booij said. "But owners are doing everything they can in the meantime to make their engines as efficient as possible. "Many are fitting sophisticated computer control systems that will manage the engine speed to meet delivery times so that they never run faster than they have to. The computers will even take account of river currents to make any journey as efficient as possible. "It's important to remember that there are more than 5,000 barges and that some of them are more than 100 years old, but have been refurbished over the years to maintain up-to-date engines, control systems and living quarters. The engines in barges last about twice as long as those in trucks and it will take some time to get every one of them up to the highest environmental standards." Another major selling point of inland shipping is the safety factor. "There are only one or two deaths each year in the sector and its safety record is excellent," Booij said. "This is reinforced by the fact that about 60% of all hazardous materials transported in the Netherlands is moved by barge. "There are occasional collisions, but they never affect people on the shore." Like the other organisations representing modalities, BVB also runs a database of available routes to help attract new users to the inland waterway network. "We started the database 10 years ago, although at that time it only existed on paper," she said. "Now it is available on the internet and is updated four times each year. "We write to all the major barge operators every three months for their latest routes and make that information easily accessible so that prospective users can see the regular shuttle services and other routes that are available. "We will help anyone find a way to get their freight flows off the roads and onto the waterways, but as an independent body, our involvement stops at making the links between the shipper and barge operator. "It is then up to them to discuss commercial terms and come up with a deal that works for both sides."
Selected articles		Home
© 2008-2012 Graemetic Ltd