NAME-447 (Design of Inland Waterways Transportation System)

INTERMODALISM

Introduction

Despite of the fact there exist different modes of transport, over 80 per cent of world
merchandise trade by volume being carried by maritime transport. This mode of transport
remains the backbone supporting international trade and globalization. It may be explained
by set of cost- and time-related parameters. There is a known relationship between transport
costs, distance and modal choice. According to it road transport is usually used for relatively
short distances, railway transport for medium distances and maritime transport for long
distances. Air transport may be used for long distance transportations, but it is extremely
expensive and couldn’t carry high amount of cargo. Variations of modal choice according to
the geographical location and type of the cargo exist, but these figures describe general
situation with the modal choice.

Figure: Distance, Modal Choice & Transport cost

Recently, there is a trend towards integrating the modes through inter-modality and linking
the modes ever more closely into production and distribution activities. Inter-modality offers
the opportunity to combine modes and in result – to find a less costly and more flexible
alternative than a uni-modal solution.

DEFINITIONS
1
The terms ‘Through Transport ’, ‘Combined Transport’, Intermodal Transport’ and
‘Multimodal Transport’ are all used in the context of cargo movement, from origin to
destination. These four terms have very similar meanings, i.e. the transportation of goods by
more than one mode of transport and a through freight rate. However, the United Nations
made a distinction between each term and introduced definitions of transportation
terminology in their Multimodal Transport Handbook (1995):
• Modes of Transport: The method of transport used for the movement of goods, e.g. by rail,
road, sea or air.
• Means of Transport: The vehicle used for transport, e.g. ship, truck, or aircraft.
• Types of Means of Transport: The type of vehicle used in the transport process, e.g. wide-
body, tank truck, passenger vessel, etc.
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2
• Unimodal Transport : The transport by one mode of transport only, where each carrier
3
issues his own transport document (B/L , airwaybill, consignment note, etc.).
4
• Combined Transport : The transportation of goods in one and the same loading unit or
vehicle by a combination of road, rail, and inland waterway modes.
• Intermodal Transport: The transportation of goods by several modes of transport where
one carrier organises the whole transport from one point or port of origin via one or more
interface points to a final port or point. Depending on how responsibility for the entire
transport is shared, different types of documents are used. There are also different
definitions for intermodal transport. The ECMT (European Conference of Ministers of
Transport) and the European Committee for standardisation (CEN) use the
following definition for intermodal transport: “the movement of goods in one and the
same loading unit or vehicle which uses successively several modes of transport without
handling of the goods themselves in changing mode”. The EC definition goes beyond
the ECMT/CEN definition, and corresponds with the ECMT/CEN definition of
multimodal transport: “the movement of goods whereby at least two different modes
are used in a door-to-door transport chain”. For Mahoney (1986), “Intermodality”
means the movement of freight via two or more dissimilar means of modes of
transportation while for Hayuth (1987), “Intermodality” means the movement of cargo
from shipper to consignee by at least two different modes of transport under a single rate,
through-billing, and through liability. The term “intermodality” has been widely adopted
by European Union policy-makers.
• Multimodal Transport: Where the carrier organising the transport takes responsibility for
the entire door-to-door transport and issues a multimodal transport document. Multimodal
transport is therefore a concept which places the responsibility for transport activities
under one operator, who then manages and co-ordinates the total task from the shipper’s
door to the consignee’s door, ensuring the continuous movement of the goods along the
best route, by the most efficient and, cost-effective means, to meet the shippers
requirements of delivery. This means simplified documentation, and increasingly by
electronic means such as electronic data interchange (EDI).
1
The HMSO (1966) publication Through Transport to Europe has defined through transport
as: “The methods of distribution and transport which give through flow of traffic, from the
point of origin to the final point of destination, with minimum transhipment delay.”
2
Traditionally a “through bill of lading” is issued to cover the move from the port of loading
via the port of transhipment to the port of discharge. Depending on the back clauses, the first
carrier might be responsible for the entire transport, or maybe only for that part which took
place on board his vessel. For the sake of clarity, it is best to restrict the use of the expression
“THROUGH BILL OF LADING” or “through transport” to one mode of transport but
covering several means of transport.
3
Bill of Lading
4
The International Chamber of Commerce Rules for Combined Transport has defined
Combined Transport as “the carriage of goods by at least two different modes of transport,
from a place at which the goods are taken in charge situated in one country to a place
designated for delivery situated in a different country.”
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Difference between intermodalism and multimodalism

Multimodal Point-to-Point Network Intermodal Integrated Network

C C
A A
B B Transshipment

Rail

Road

D D Transshipment
F F
E E

Figure: Multimodalism & intermodalism

The movement of international shipments via container using sequential transportation modes
(water, air and land) makes use of the most efficient cost-effective methods to move goods.
An entire new set of terms has developed around this concept of inter-modalism.

Intermodal transportation is generally defined as a system of transport whereby two or more

modes of transport are used to transport the same loading unit in an integrated manner. While
multimodal is the continuous movement of goods by more than one means of transport.

An example of intermodal is a common shipping container (20', 40' etc) that is delivered to a
shippers dock, loaded with freight and sealed, the loaded container is released by the shipper
to a transportation company and transported by truck, (rail) truck, to a port where it is loaded
on a ship for marine transport, off loaded at the destination port (customs), and moved via
truck or rail to the final destination where the container is opened and it is unloaded.

An example of multimodal is: the shipper loads pallets of freight; they are released to a
shipping co, and loaded into a truck. the pallets of freight is delivered to a marine freight
dock where it is loaded onto a ship, carried by the ship across the water to the destination port
where it is off loaded to a warehouse or truck (customs) and delivered by truck to the
receiver.

Advantage & disadvantages of Intermodal Transportation

Today, people looking to ship goods (or move people) are likely to realize that it doesn't
always make sense to stick to just one mode of transportation. For example, cargo may be
offloaded from a ship onto a truck, which transfers it to a rail yard, from which it will be
moved across the country by train. Intermodal transportation may be more efficient and
cheaper; in some cases, however, it does have pronounced disadvantages in terms of speed
and reliability.
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Speed

Although intermodal transportation offers the benefit of relatively low costs compared to
other methods, it obtains this by sacrificing speed; any time cargo is transferred to a
comparatively slower means of travel, for example trains, which operate on fixed rails that
may not offer as direct route as the roads a truck uses, it slows down. To operate at peak
efficiency, intermodal transportation must also reduce the amount of time spent waiting in
depots for a new carrier to arrive or for cargo to be unloaded.

Lack of Reliability

Because of its reliance on more than one mode of transit, intermodal transportation is also
subject to lower overall reliability; as the chain of different modes grows, the possibility of
any link in the chain breaking down also increases. This is particularly problematic when one
of the modes of transport is rail; railroads are more susceptible to delays introduced by bad
weather or equipment failure. For this reason, as well as concerns over speed, shippers that
require reliable, high-speed transportation are less likely to consider intermodal systems.

Damage

Whenever cargo has to be shuffled around, shippers risk the possibility of damage as the
freight is transferred from one method of transportation to another. Fortunately, this danger
can be mitigated, but doing so generally involves over-packing by adding more bracing and
protective material than would normally be deemed sufficient. This added weight and
expense partially counteracts the advantages intermodal transportation has in terms of energy
efficiency and cost.

High Infrastructure Costs

Intermodal freight transportation also suffers from comparatively high infrastructure costs.
Containerization has lowered the cost and difficulty of transporting goods by standardizing
their form; shippers can easily move the same container from a ship to a train to a truck.
Handling these containers, however, requires that shippers have the heavy-duty cranes and
equipment necessary to manipulate large containers; this infrastructure may not exist in all
places, particularly in developing countries.

Intermodal Transport Chain

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Four major functions define an intermodal transport chain:

• Composition. The process of assembling and consolidating freight at a terminal that

offers an intermodal interface between a local / regional distribution system and a
national / international distribution system. Commonly referred as the "first mile".
Ideally, loads of freight coming from different suppliers are assembled at distribution
centers so they can be forwarded to high capacity modes such as rail and maritime
shipping. The dominant mode for such a process tends to be trucking as it offers
flexibility and door-to-door services. Activities such as packaging and warehousing
are also included in the composition process, which is closely linked with the function
of production.

• Connection. Involves a consolidated modal flow, such as a freight train or a

containership (or even fleets of trucks), between at least two terminals, which takes
place over national or international freight distribution systems. The efficiency of a
connection is mainly derived from economies of scale, such as double stacking or
post-panamax containerships, coupled with an adequate frequency of service.

• Interchange. The major intermodal function takes place at terminals whose purpose
is to provide an efficient continuity within a transport chain. Those terminals are
dominantly within the realm of national or international freight distribution systems,
with ports (transshipment hubs) being the most notable example.

• Decomposition. Once a load of freight has reached a terminal close to its destination,
it has to be fragmented and transferred to the local / regional freight distribution
system. Commonly referred as the "last mile" and often represents one of the most
difficult segments of distribution. This function, which is linked with the function of
consumption, dominantly occurs within metropolitan areas and involves unique
distribution problems also known as urban logistics.

Factors affecting inter-modalism

The growth of intermodal freight transportation will be driven and challenged by four factors:

(a) Measuring, understanding, and responding to the role of inter-modalism in the changing
customer requirements and hyper competition of supply chains in a global market place;
(b) The need to reliably and flexibly respond to changing customer requirements with
seamless and integrated coordination of freight and equipment flows through various modes;
(c) Knowledge of current and future intermodal operational options and alternatives, as well
as the potential for improved information and communications technology and the challenges
associated with their application; and
(d) Constraints on and coordination of infrastructure capacity, including policy and regulatory
issues, as well as better management of existing infrastructure and broader considerations on
future investment in new infrastructure.
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Intermodal Transport Units, Techniques & Costs

The most common is that the goods are carried in the same intermodal transport unit (ITU),
usually a container, but it can be also swap bodies or piggyback trailers.

Figure: Intermodal transport units & techniques

The transportation process at intermodal mode of transport can be subdivided into several
stages - pre-haulage, transshipment, main haulage, transshipment and post-haulage .General
scheme is provided in the Figure below.

Figure: General mode of intermodal supply chain

Costs function for intermodal transportation differs from the unimodal. The intermodal
transportation cost includes several types of transportation costs for the routing of freight
from its origin to its destination, which involves a variety of shipment, transshipment and
warehousing activities. As it may be noticed - it consists of lines with different angles, while
in the transshipment points, costs increase is represented as vertical lines.
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Figure: Intermodal transport cost function representation

Inter-modality at Inland Water Transport

Population growth and increased economic activity result in growth of maritime container
transport consequently creating growth of land surface freight transport. At the start of the
twenty-first century the transport system in the wealthy developed countries has common
serious problems. The road networks suffer from recurrent congestion, the accessibility of
economically important centers is deteriorating, and the negative impact on the environment
is considered to be too high (11). Existing transport systems, on the other hand, seem to be
unable to cope with the changes in the transportation market. Thus, intermodal transport
might be an interesting way to solve part of existing problems and the same time provide cost
efficient solution.

The promotion of intermodal transport logistics involves the creation of technical, legal and
economic framework conditions as well as innovative concepts relating to logistics for the
optimum integration of the different modes of transport for a “door-to-door” service.
Setting up a reliable intermodal service at inland waterways is an organizational challenge.
Coordination and cooperation between many parties involved in such operations is required
but does not come naturally. There are numerous specific conditions that need to be met in
order to reach operational efficiency of intermodal services at inland waterways.
For better understanding of possibility of these practice usage for CIS (Commonwealth of
Independent States) countries, it is necessary to systemize information of inland waterways
network concepts, their design and evaluate performance of different possibilities. Correct
design of intermodal transport networks will help in future to achieve a substantial better
cost-quality ratio. That means:
1. Reduction of the integral lead time in the door-to-door transport chain.
2. Reduction the waiting time for freight.
3. Ability to provide services for more destinations, also on relative short
distances and for small flows, also in the case of pre and end haulage.
4. Higher reliability for clients.
5. More flexibility in meaning of time and space.
6. More suitable operation times at interconnections between links.
7. Sustainability, as a competing quality dimension as well on the long term.
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Transport system & network design

Most freight carriers face service network design issues, irrespective of their involvement in
intermodal transportation activities. There are different types of networks discussed in
research literature. From the simplest possible connections result the three elementary
network structures of transport systems:
Line structure
Ring structure
Star structure
These elementary structures are shown in Figure below. Dependent on the locations of the
nodes and the freight flow requirements they can be linked in different ways to more complex
two and three-dimensional networks. These basic concepts are used for every mode of
transport, including intermodal.

Figure: Transport network

Crainic differs three planning levels of policies in management of complex freight

transportation networks: strategic (long-term), tactical medium term and operational (short
term).
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Figure: Three levels of policies in freight network management

In strategic or long term planning, the highest level of management is involved and is
responsible for making decisions on the physical structure with regards to resources,
locations and infrastructure. The management decides e.g. where terminаls аnd hubs shаll be
built, the volume of personnel to be employed, аnd how mаny vehicles of which type shаll be
bought. The strаtegic plаnning level аlso deаls with the definition of customer service types
аnd tаriff policies.
The аim of the tаcticаl or medium term plаnning is the design of the trаnsportаtion network.
Its focus, in contrаst to the strаtegic plаnning, lies in the efficient аllocаtion of existing
resources to execute the trаnsport orders. Therefore, the whole trаnsport system is divided
into long distаnce distribution аnd regionаl trаffic. In long distаnce distribution decisions аre
mаde concerning the design of the service network. Regionаl trаffic is normаlly divided into
pickup аnd delivery regions. These regions аre then further sepаrаted into different routing
regions. The necessаry order dаtа for this plаnning step is not given аt this stаge. Insteаd,
compаnies tаke typicаl order situаtions from historicаl dаtа or forecаst the order quаntity
bаsed on their expectаtions. The result of the plаnning is very sensitive to the input of this
dаtа: if the compаnies decide to tаke аverаge order dаtа, on аn operаtionаl level, а shortаge
on vehicles cаn occur. If the compаnies plаn with the peаks of а typicаl order situаtion,
optimizаtion potentiаl is аvаilаble due to toomuch vehicle cаpаcities. These cаpаcities аre not
used efficiently.
Operаtionаl or short term plаnning is decentrаlized in operаtionаl units. The plаnners (locаl
mаnаgement, dispаtchers) аre confronted with а dynаmic environment, where on one hаnd,
the orders mаy be plаced аt very short notice or аrrive dynаmicаlly. Аdditionаlly, the time
windows for pickup аnd delivery аlter from customer to customer. On the other hаnd, the
plаnners hаve to аdаpt the services from the tаcticаl plаnning to the current conditions to
include аdjustments to schedules for services, crews аnd mаintenаnce аctivities. Аlso the
routing of the vehicles аs well аs the control of the shipment is pаrt of the operаtionаl
plаnning.
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Intermodal Transportation networks

Definition of Intermodal Transportation Network is derived from specification of intermodal

transport and means a logistically linked system using two or more transport modes with a
single rate. Modes should use with common handling equipment, permitting freight to be
transferred between modes in the same load unit.

Figure: Influencing variables for intermodal transportation systems

To set up an intermodal transport network it is necessary to select rules for the transportation
elements and design common principles for the network. The major categories of
performance indicators of the intermodal transport chain include:
Pricing outcomes – monitor the sum of the direct transportation charges paid
by the user to move the container from the point of commissioning to the point
of decommissioning. Assuming that intermodal operation will usually apply a
through transport freight rate, this should be comparatively straightforward to
measure.
Financial outcomes – from the producer perspective would include measures
of profitability. Financial measures of customers should include the sum of the
direct freight charges plus any other costs associated with transportation.
Timing (including transit time, frequency of service and on-time reliability).
Service quality (loss and damage control) - Loss and damage is often less
important for containerized cargo than for general freight or even break-bulk
cargoes. The core output measures relate to the ratio of the number of loss and
damage claims per container carried, and the value of loss and damage claims
per container carried.
Ease of use (including administration, asset management and human
resources) –relates principally to administrative procedures such as the
simplicity of documentation. It also includes the error rate in invoicing clients,
shipment tracing capability and aspects of the relationship between the service
providers and the client.
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On the early stage of intermodal network design, above mentioned characteristics should be
described in detail.

Intermodal transportation systems design

Intermodal transport systems are complex socio-economic systems, which combine high
investment needs with high risks, because of limited alternative uses of the system’s assets.
The system design involves the definition of a network of lines, the creation of a timetable
and the definition of transportation equipment size and configuration.
Under the term “conceptual framework” is meant a scientific toolbox to be used by the
researcher for designing freight intermodal transport system. This framework is result of
relevant literature research and consists of concepts, relationships between concepts, and
some conditions for the existence of relationships.
It is assumed that intermodal transport network design pursues achievement of two main
objectives:
To design an intermodal transport system that has a significant, sustainable
competitive advantage (SSCA).
To design an intermodal transport system with good market entry ability
(MEA).
Both of these objectives focus mostly on marketing, but affect technical characteristics of the
future network as well.

Significant, sustainable competitive advantage (SSCA)

SSCA represents unique set of properties that allows the system to provide an output with a
cost service ratio that is accepted by customers over the closest competing alternatives.
“Significant” means that the difference with existing competitors is big enough and
“sustainable” that it will last for a sufficient period of time.
Several strategies may make intermodal transport competitive. However, applied to
intermodal transport system design, an SSCA strategy basically involves three general sub
strategies that are more important than others:
Cost advantage strategy.
Differentiation strategy.
Focus (segmentation) strategy.
Basically these are Porter’s generic strategies, he described in 1980 and those companies
from different industries use to achieve competitive advantage. For example, cost advantage
may be achieved in several ways – some are related to the capital assets of the systems, others
to the ways such systems are operated. A good example in intermodal freight networks could
be inland water haulage, instead of more traditional, but much more expensive trucking.
Differentiation strategies refer to provide product or services different from those of their
competitors. Central point for these strategies is how service or product is perceived and
evaluated by customers. In most of the cases customers of intermodal transportation systems
will be shippers and third party logistics providers, but also may be regulatory public bodies.
Most obvious way of differentiation is quality of the provided intermodal service.
Focus strategies are commonly used, when a system is designed for a particular market so
called target market. In intermodal shipping industry it could mean focusing on special
commodity group – agricultural, liquid bulk or hazardous goods.
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Driving forces of a freight network may be described using ‘SMART’ factors:

• Strategic initiative for performance gain
• Market coverage
• Additional business
• Reduction in waste
• Technology development
One of the greatest advantage of IWT comparing to other modes of transport is possible
“reduction in waste”. As sustainable logistics becomes more and more important for world
economy, IWT may use its eco-friendly characteristics as SSCA. Following Figure represents
comparison of “total external costs” for different modes of transport.

Figure: Total external costs of different modes of transport [Inland Navigation Europe, 2009]

IWT is the quietest, safest and least polluting form of transport. Shipping more goods on
inland waterways will help to reduce greenhouse gases and traffic congestion.
Market entry ability (MEA)

Some of the most important factors determining an intermodal transport system's ability to
enter the market are designated integrability and communicability.
The concept of integrability represents the intermodal transportation systems ability to
prevent or reduce difficulties it will possibly meet while entering the market. Such difficulties
may be legally caused by existing entry barriers, or could by artificially build up by
competitors to defend their market shares.
Integrable system is always designed with ability to eliminate entry and operational barriers,
that exist in the systems, from which it is planned to gain major markets shares from. A good
example of integrable systems are intermodal logistics hubs, that could operate all modes of
transport and load units, so every customer could handle its cargoes no matter what kind of
transport modes he uses.
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Under transportation system’s communicability is understood ability to show potential

customers difference in its value with the value of the closest alternative.

Relationship between SSCA & MEA

Both objectives, MEA and SSCA, are important for understanding at early planning phase of
the intermodal transportation system.
Using the specification of requirements from the external analysis, it is possible to manipulate
with design components to get in result an intermodal transport system fulfilling planned
performance objectives. Theory gives some guidance on main relationships between various
possible design components and performance objectives in terms of SSCA and MEA.

Figure: Relationship between external determinants & elements of MEA & SSCA of new
system
The strength of the requirements represented by these relationships will finally lead to the
focus strategy assumed.

Intermodal design process guideline

The goal of intermodal network design is to develop an system able to enter the market and
survive there by attracting sufficient demand. Two conceptual instruments for analysing entry
and survival problems suggested are the SSCA and MEA concepts. SSCA contains the
concepts representing potential competitive advantages: cost advantage, quality advantage
and environmental advantage. A thorough demand analysis covering shipper and consignee
conditions is a necessary first step in developing a new transport system with sufficient
SSCA. The determination of an advantage also implies comparison with the most important
competing system, here called the reference alternative. Therefore, the final choice of design
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of the intermodal transport system involves a design and evaluation process where various
designs of the new system are compared with the reference alternative along selected
performance dimensions in order to estimate whether the new system can attract the demand
needed.

Figure: Intermodal transport system design & evaluation process

Framework for intermodal networks design at IWT

The attractiveness and success of intermodal IWT can largely be ascribed to the relatively
low price of its services, made possible by low-cost operations. In order to maintain, and
possibly improve, the cost level, two major factors need to be considered: the vessel size
(scale of operation) and the circulation time of the vessel. However, the way in which they
influence the costs differs. Improving the circulation time of a vessel can only lower the cost
per load unit by reducing the fixed cost share, while increasing the scale of operation may
result in a lower cost per load unit due to reduced fixed and variable costs per unit.

Size of the vessel

The optimal ship size choice has aim to minimize costs per ton at shipping by water and in
port . In addition to this, there are many other factors that influence on decision of the vessel
size choice:
• Available transport volume.
• Cooperation / opportunities for bundling.
• Minimum service level: frequency of services.
• Fit of circulation times to sailing schedules.
• Nautical obstacles, e.g. water and air draft
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Available transport volume

To recover the costs of a service a sufficient loading degree is required. A reduction of the
loading degree, therefore, may have a significant influence on the cost-effectiveness of a
service, due to the cost structure of barge transport. As most of the costs are fixed, a reduction
in the loading degree will have a minimal effect on the costs, but a significant effect on the
revenues. Operators estimate the break-even loading degree is 75%. This figure depends on
circulation times of vessels. If circulation times could be improved the break-even loading
degree could be decreased.

Figure: Relationship between costs, revenues & loading degree

Cooperation / opportunities for bundling

The required transport volume for using larger vessels could be achieved by operational
cooperation between intermodal barge. They are based on a vessel sharing agreement, in
which the barge operators can preserve their commercial corporate identity. In addition to this
way of bundling flows, flows which feeder the trunk route may support an increase in the
scale of operation.
A good example of possible cooperation for intermodal IWT is so called “barge truck
concept”. A convoy of small barges is pushed along a main waterway artery – each small
barge is capable of independent mobility, and once a smaller artery or canal is reached, the
small truck peels off from the main convoy and makes its own way down the smaller artery.

Minimum service level: frequency of services

Since shippers wish to have sufficient sailings per week a certain minimum frequency needs
to be offered. Therefore, growth of transport volumes can be used first to increase the number
of sailings and later on to increase the size of the vessel.
More port calls per week a service can offer – better for clients, but at the same time this
leads to higher operational expenses.

Fit of circulation times to sailing schedules

In addition to volumes and frequencies there is another consideration for choice of vessel
size, i.e. the circulation time also known as roundtrip time. The circulation time is defined as
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the time between the departure of a barge at a terminal and the following departure of the
same barge from that terminal. If the requirement for regular sailing schedules was dropped
and so-called ‘future times’ operations could be introduced, the idle time within a circulation
could be reduced. The way in which a sailing schedule incorporates possible idle time of
barges in a circulation time determines the reliability of barge services.
Increasing the size of a vessel will increase the total loading/unloading time and therefore a
large vessel will spend a greater proportion of time at the terminals. This may especially arise
when more terminals need to be served in order to get the larger vessel filled. The circulation
time will increase and it might become unfavorable to maintain an efficient sailing schedule.
As a consequence, the number of possible roundtrips may decrease, which would have a
negative effect on the transport costs per load unit.

Total cost as function

The optimal ship size is obtained by trading off economies of size in hauling operations with
diseconomies of size in handling operations and costs of storage of containers in ports.
Diagrammatically, the model can be given the cost balancing form shown in Figure below

Figure: The optimal vessel size

As it is shown there should be a trade-off between shipping costs per TEU and handling and
storage costs per TEU. Sailing by a large ship with low frequency on a route leads to low
shipping costs, by high storage costs, while sailing by a small ship with high frequency leads
to high shipping costs and low storage costs. So complete optimal solution for both variables
does not exist when one objective aimed at minimizing the shipping costs while the other
objective aimed at minimizing the storage costs due to two objectives conflict with each
other.
However, by using Pareto optimality principle, the optimal solution may be found. In this
case optimum is the solution where no objective can be reached without simultaneously
worsening at leasing one of the remaining objectives.
In other words – by finding the minimum of total cost function the optimal ship size may be
determined

Nautical obstacles (navigable quality of waterways)

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According to definition, navigable inland waterway is a stretch of water, not part of the sea,
over which vessels of a carrying capacity of not less than 50 tones can navigate when
normally loaded .
The size of inland waterway vessels or convoys suitable for inland navigation and the volume
of goods transportable on these vessels and convoys depends mainly on the infrastructure of
the waterway concerned. Determinants of waterway infrastructure for waterway transport are:
• Fairway parameters (fairway depth and width, curve radii)
• Lock dimensions (available length and width of lock chambers)
• Passage heights (clearance height and available passage width under bridges and
overhead lines)
The European Agreement on Main Inland Waterways of International Importance (AGN) of
1996 is the standard used for classifying the navigability of inland waterways. According to
this internationally adopted classification system, European inland waterways dedicated to
commercial use are divided into seven main classes (I to VII) with relation to their
navigability. For example, waterways of classes IV and higher are of international
importance, accommodating inland vessels and convoys with a minimum dimension of 80 m
length, 9.5 m width and 2.5 m draught, representing a tonnage in the range of 1,000 to 1,500
tones per barge.

Framework

Following Figure presents a framework of the factors that influence the performance of
intermodal barge transport. This framework shows the determinants for the main factors, the
size of the vessel and the time variables, and shows their relationship to the performance
indicators of intermodal barge transport from both the barge operators’ and shippers’
perspective. This general framework can also be used as a tool to explain and evaluate the
relation between barge network design, the transport market and the performance of
intermodal barge transport.
NAME-447 (Design of Inland Waterways Transportation System)

Figure: Framework for barge network design