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Policy decision-support for inland waterway transport in sustainable urban areas: an analysis of economic viability

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Abstract

Many cities have initiated promoting inland waterway transport to serve parcel delivery in urban areas to achieve sustainable transportation. This research aims to identify the key components of an economically viable urban network distribution, where inland waterway transport is deployed as the main transport, and cargo bikes or electric vehicles are used for last-mile delivery. The analysis uses a decision-support framework based on a two-echelon city distribution scheme. Numerical experiments are conducted using near-practical instances in France and inputs from industry stakeholders. From the study, it was found that the economic viability of inland waterways as main transport depends on the number of parcels to be delivered, and the existing infrastructures. The city configurations, their accessibility, as well as their operating conditions are also of utmost importance. The lowest CO2 equivalent emissions are obtained by combining inland waterways with electric bikes. This paper can be used as decision-making support and guidance for transport companies, industry stakeholders, and public authorities for an efficient and sustainable urban distribution network combining inland waterways and bikes/vans.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, AJ. The data are not publicly available due to confidentiality.

Notes

  1. Delay costs are the costs associated with the value of travel time lost relative to a free-flow situation, while the deadweight loss costs is the part of the delay costs that is regarded as a proper basis for transport pricing.

  2. Source: https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-modes/inland-waterways/promotion-inland-waterway-transport_en.

  3. Roso et al. (2020) show that a barge can replace between 70 and 80 trucks that travel to the same place.

  4. Details on each programme can be found on the European Commission website.

  5. EC and CCNR (2022) provide more details about the projects that have been implemented and those that are still at early stage in Europe.

  6. In practices, the parcels can be sorted either on-board of the barge or at the departure port. In the present framework, we do not make any distinction between these alternatives and consider that the time spent to sort the parcels are the same wherever the sorting location. This allows us to focus on the main operations of IWT and last-mile delivery.

  7. The 100 km may represent the average distance of a typical urban city.

  8. www.ecotransit.world.

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Funding

This work was supported by a post-doctoral scholarship from GeoPoste.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kedge Business School, 40 Avenue des Terroirs de France, 75012, Paris, France

    Anicia Jaegler, Laingo M. Randrianarisoa & Hiba Yahyaoui

Authors
  1. Anicia Jaegler
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  2. Laingo M. Randrianarisoa
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  3. Hiba Yahyaoui
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Contributions

Conceptualization: AJ, LR, HY; Data curation: HY; Formal analysis: AJ, HY; Funding acquisition: AJ; Investigation: AJ, LR, HY; Methodology: AJ, LR, HY; Project administration: AJ; Resources: AJ, LR, HY; Software: HY; Supervision: AJ, LR; Validation: AJ, LR; Visualization: AJ, LR, HY; Roles/Writing—original draft: AJ, LR, HY; and Writing—review & editing: AJ, LR.

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Correspondence to Anicia Jaegler.

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Jaegler, A., Randrianarisoa, L.M. & Yahyaoui, H. Policy decision-support for inland waterway transport in sustainable urban areas: an analysis of economic viability. Ann Oper Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-024-06034-0

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