What are water gauges for?

Water gauges provide information on the flow of water along a river, allowing forecasts regarding fairway depths.

Fairway depths and the load factor of vessels are directly related to each other. The general rule is that if relatively high draughts loaded are possible, the average load factor of vessels increases. Thus the ratio of freight revenues and costs increases and vessel operators require fewer trips to transport the same volume of cargo.

Inland navigation uses a so-called benchmark water gauge depending on the route and the direction, aiding the vessel operators when making decisions concerning the load of the vessel.

How many tons can an inland vessel carry?

The introduction of new vessels in the last decades has resulted in an increase of average carrying capacity. Large inland vessels carrying up to 5,000 tons (135m length, 17m width, 4m depth) are no more an exception. Tanker vessels have become even bigger, up to 8,000 tons. However, also smaller vessels are suitable to serve customers along smaller waterways and to provide feeder services from and to ports. For instance, a quarter of the Dutch fleet's capacity is still formed by vessels carrying less than 1,000 tons.

How much fuel does an inland vessel consume?

Optimising fuel consumption does not only mean reducing operational costs, in most cases this also implies improving environmental performance of vessels. The basic parameters that influence fuel consumption are flow velocity, draught of a vessel, water depth, hull shape, vessel speed and engine capacity.

Average self-propelled vessels consume up to 0.013 litre per ton-km, whereas modern vessels can achieve gas oil consumption as low as 0.0044 litre per ton-km. Compared to rail (0.0095 l/tkm) or road transport (0.0292 l/tkm), average fuel consumption for inland navigation (0.0083 l/tkm) is relatively low.

Can I be subsidized for using waterway transport?

Depending on how you wish to use the waterways, there are many different funding opportunities available. You can find more information here.

To what extent is the inland navigation market liberalised?

The tour-de-rôle system, a market regulation system in which cargo is allocated to the individual vessels according to the principle "first come, first serve", was officially abolished in 1998. The inland navigation market is nowadays fully liberalised.

What is a Ro/Ro vessel?

Ro/Ro = roll-on/roll-off

A Ro/Ro vessel is a motorised vessel or barge used for transporting rolling cargo (passenger vehicles, trucks, semi-trailers) which moves on and off board on its own wheels. For this purpose the vessels have built-in ramps which allow the cargo to be efficiently roll-on and rolled-off the vessel when in port.

What is the difference between multimodal and intermodal transport?

Though often used synonymously, the meaning of these two terms is slightly different:

Multimodal transport more generally refers to the transportation of cargo by using two or more different modes of transport.

The term intermodality however, describes a transport system in which two or more modes of transport are used to transport the same loading unit, without any handling of the freight itself when changing modes.