The report on Digital Inland Navigation published last week by the European Commission follows up on the ‘Digital Inland Waterway Area’ (DINA) study from October 2017. The report helps framing the discussion on the digitalisation of the inland waterways transport sector in order to seek synergies and improving interoperability in logistics and freight transport across Europe. It describes existing initiatives and tools in the area in an integrated way, including the findings of the previous study and ongoing Commission initiatives.

The identified problems range from the lack of data sharing capabilities to the limited size of the inland waterway transport market in comparison to other modes of transport. The research has specified three areas where digitalisation is critically important for inland waterway transport:

• The improvement of navigation and management of traffic
• The integration with other modes of transport, especially in multimodal
• A reduction of the administrative burden

GRENDEL project through its activity 4.2 “Improved transport & logistics management processes” addresses digitalisation aspects of the inland waterway transport sector. The published DINA study will be one of the bases to further work of the GRENDEL consortium. The dedicated activities of GREDEL project shall contribute to the improved of transport and logistics processes of fleet operators by making use of digitalisation and considering available tools and services, incl. RIS, as well as future requirements derived from modern global logistics (e.g. Logistics 4.0). The improved processes shall potentially contribute to making inland shipping more attractive to shippers and other stakeholders by demonstrating reliability and predictability – next to the cost-effectiveness and environmental friendliness. They shall as well enable better integration of IWT into the multimodal logistics system, better use of existing and free capacities of fleet operators and lead to a revitalised image of IWT.

More information (as published by EC)

• Commission Staff Working Document on digital inland navigation
• Mid-term progress report on the implementation of the NAIADES II action programme for the promotion of inland waterway transport (covering the period 2014-2017)
• CEF support to Inland waterways
• Inland Navigation market report 2014-2017