Why we need to urgently rethink European inland waterways transportation


By Antoon van Coillie


Antoon is Director of Blue Line Logistics, a company that has developed and operates a logistical platform for the transport of palletized goods consisting of logistical hubs combined with small inland waterway vessels/ barges, called Pallet Shuttle Barges or PSB’s. This results in an efficient and flexible logistical model, similar to road haulage, applied to inland waterways navigation.


A tsunami is gathering pace that will overwhelm the inland waterway transport industry in Europe over the next 10 to 15 years and will change the maritime industry profoundly. This tsunami is called sustainability.


The present inland waterway fleet is not equipped to cope with this. Some stakeholders or companies are aware of a need for change, but their efforts are incremental and will


66 | The Report • December 2020 • Issue 94


not provide an answer in time to the coming onslaught. Regulation still allows the use of unsustainable engines, but the sustainability agenda of major shippers will force the change. And this earlier rather than later. In order to adequately respond to this challenge, there is an urgent need for a radical rethink of the inland waterway fleet: the type of vessels, the propulsion, the operations and its place in intermodal logistic chains.


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