Development of ecological and economical water transport, reducing CO₂ emissions

Water transport is everywhere in the world perceived as the greenest form of transport. Advantages and benefits of water transport are the most applied in the segment of foreign shipments, especially on long journeys and in combination with sea shipping. Waterways are also used for recreation. Passenger and recreational inland navigation is a significantly developing.

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Inland Navigation Europe

Comparison of the capacity of transport modes

Inland water transport by commodity

In the currently shipping, which is based on traditional structure of the goods, still leads transportation of piece cargo. For large shipments, especially heavy and long pieces is shipping the only way to quickly and easily overcome great distances without any restrictions. Rail is restricted to a maximum size of transported units, based on the width and height of the rail profile and radius corners. Relatively better opportunities offer road transport, limited by bridges and elevation, but the transport of large pieces mean big reductions for other road users. Road transport, therefore, serves only to approximate the bulk cargo to the next section of navigable waterways. Better condition for shipment is not just the size of which is unmanageable for the railroad. Shipping is able to reduce the final prices of products such as engines, turbines and transformers, silos, electricity, boilers, trains or helicopters, just by reducing transport costs.

Transport of the train by inland navigation. Source: Inland navigation Europe

A six-barge tow carries about 10,000 tons of coal

Another commodity whose transportation is traditionally entrusted to shipping is dry (powder) goods. In particular, the gravel, stone, basic chemicals, agricultural products, fertilizer, ore and coal. These commodities with low-kilogram price, small claims for treatment and regularity of supply require low-cost transportation route. There have shipping least expensive entry price for the processors of raw materials. Current shipping with trained crews working in shifts with modern ship equipment, allows transport with specific timetables. Shipping is as reliable as rail transport. Unlike the road transport less dependent on the current traffic situation and weather. In the Czech Republic, the question of instability in the river Elbe and its dependence on the amount of water will be resolved by improving the navigation conditions on the lower Elbe between Decin and the border with Germany.

The new ship for transportation of flour

Transport of waste by inland navigation in London.  Source: Tomáš Kolařík

Within this group may include shipments of waste, which is used by cities in the basin waterways. Shipments of industrial and household waste by water reducing the transit of trucks in residential areas.

River tanker for the transport of chemicals. Source: Tomáš Kolařík

Other transported commodity are liquids cargo. For the transport of mineral oils and lubricants, liquid chemicals, vegetable oils can not possibly find a more efficient transport route in terms of volume and price of the load than the tanker. The same applies to transport liquefied natural gas. Only competitor to shipping of large volumes are pipelines, whose profitability is subject to high initial investment and long amortization period.

Typical inland vessel for transporting containers. Source: Inland navigation Europe

Rapidly developing branch of inland navigation is the transport of containers. European Commission calls for the years 2002 - 2010 for increase in the volume of container shipments by 40% so that the total proportion increased to 5%. Indeed, the combination of maritime transport, i.e. the transfer on water is a major advantage. Floating mobile gantry cranes shorten waiting for stable port capacity to transshipment cargo to terrestrial transport. Used modern methods of container transshipment makes shipping a highly competitive business in the transport market.

Project of inland vessel for transporting goods on pallets.  Source: Bureau Voorlichting Binnenvaart

Shipments of small consumer goods by the inland navigation slow down just the storage of retail goods on pallets. Pallet handling is beneficial for freight in a single layer where each pallet is easily accessible. Shipping would require the storage of pallets in multiple layers and method of handling between these layers. Projects on ships for transport of pallets are prepared and first specialized vessels were made. In the coming years problems of transportation of palleted goods should be resolved.

Inland vessel for the transport of cars

Water transport is used by the major car manufacturers. Ford factory in Cologne (Germany), and Volkswagen in Wolfsburg (Germany) dispatched nearly half of its production on the water. This greatly simplifies the storage spaces in the factories, as slowly floating ships are quickly available stores of the finished products.

Source: European Commission and Central Rhine Commission