Project Summary

Inland waterway transport emits three times less CO2 than road transport. Barge transport is mainly used for large volumes, as a barge replaces a lot of trucks. ST4W aims to convince shippers who ship palletized goods to ship road freight by sea. These flows are often small and very diverse, loaded, transported and delivered mainly by SMEs, with complex distribution patterns. Pallet flows, loaded directly into barges or grouped into containers, must be consolidated for shipping by water. Efficient logistics engineering is essential to ensure freight consolidation, which requires precise synchronization between operators and a collaborative approach requiring organizational and behavioral change on the part of logistics professionals. Efficient, simple and inexpensive communication tools using global standards are essential.

Long-lasting and closer cooperation between inland waterway actors and their supply chain partners will enable more customers to use inland waterway transport (from mental shift to modal shift) and therefore reduce CO2 emissions.

Project goals

At present, there are no dedicated tools for inland waterway transport, and maritime systems are too expensive for SMEs. This is a critical problem, especially since 85% of European river freight is concentrated on NWE territory. ST4W therefore offers a management solution for river transport, offering small players easier and less expensive access to secure data, and allowing them to share a hierarchical monitoring service, complementary to the river information services that locate vessels. . These tools will be tested, validated and deployed during the project with the support of various partners (shippers, logistics operators, shipowners, ports and terminals, waterway administrations). Sustainable and closer cooperation between inland waterway actors and their supply chain partners will enable more customers to use inland waterway transport (from mental shift to modal shift) and therefore reduce their CO2 emissions. logistics operations. million t.km of inland waterway road, or 40,000 t of CO2 saved by the tenth year after the project.

Key Words

Track & trace

Global standards

Easy access to data

Reduction of CO2 emissions

Unique dedicated solution

Project Partners