Handling of Inland Vessels in Seaports – Necessary Actions and Additional Options to Support Container Transport on Inland Waterways

Abstract

Deep sea container transport is despite the existence of various crisis situations a worldwide steady growing business and as a result seaports need to handle ever growing container volumes. Transporting these containers with as little as possible emissions, efficiently and in a reliable manner from the seaport into the hinterland has strategic importance for the attractiveness and hence the competitiveness and growth potential of a container seaport. For ports having access to the hinterland by inland waterways, inland shipping is a mode to contribute to hinterland accessibility and to provide a more environmental- friendly and safer solutions for hinterland transport compared to truck transport, which is still very dominant. The physical as well as the informational interfaces between the seaport and the hinterland modalities (truck, train and inland vessel) appear to have significant importance for the overall cost and quality performance of the hinterland transport chain, in particular on relatively short transport distance. Several container seaports world-wide have a well-developed hinterland transport system for container barges, but are facing inefficient handling processes of inland vessels in the seaport which cause tempered growth of container inland shipping. This paper discusses different causes for inefficient handling of container inland vessels in seaports and evaluates initiatives, proposals and necessary actions for improvement. These matters are discussed in the context of the major Northwest-European container seaports. Solutions can be found both in organisational, information-based and technical improvements. These improvements are jointly needed to realise the growth ambitions for container inland shipping.