Datasharing in Inland Navigation

1 Introduction

This paper describes the theme of sharing information with the focus on inland navigation. Looking at global actions needed to achieve the climate targets, inland shipping will play an important role in making transport more sustainable and to order to achieve a climate neutral logistic chain. De Vlaamse Waterweg (DVW) will play a pioneering role in this matter. Starting point is to consider inland shipping not only as climate neutral and resilient, but also to offer the necessary transparency to every stakeholder so that it can be used by e.g. shippers as a fully-fledged transport mode, alongside rail, road and air. The ultimate goal is to evolve from uni-modal thinking, where people make decisions based on habits, to a synchromodal (automated) mode by 2050. To achieve this, sharing qualitative data will be crucial. It is important to notice that DVW will set up a model to facilitate in sharing qualitative data and will only allow data to be used within legal constraints.

2 From Local Systems to Ecosystems

As of today, decisions to transport cargo on a particular mode of transport are often made a long time in advance. As a result, the most efficient mode of transport, let alone climate-neutral transport, is usually not used. There are many reasons: contractual obligations, limitations in the field of infrastructure, but often also ignorance. Biggest victim is the climate.

Taking into account that the transport sector is responsible for 21% of the total carbon emission as of 2021, a reduction of this seems to be able to be made quite easily by choosing the transport mode that has least impact on the climate at the right time at the right place. However, in practice, this is not as easy as written down. A lot of parameters can influence the decision to make the right choice for the right transport. This can result in a fast, polluting choice in some cases, but as we notice today, the choice is moistly made by the heart and not by the brain.

A lot of freight – most of them are parcels ordered by domestic users – in the logistics chain moves too fast, disrupting the regular “just in time” logistics chain. One of the reasons is that most home users receive their order the next day without even asking. As a result, only the fast modes (trucks, vans) make part of this chain. As long as this habit is not broken by ratio, an economical, more sustainable or slower mode such as inland shipping cannot stand a chance and thus cannot compete.

Also to be taken into consideration is that a vast majority (some figures mention 70%) of the current fleet in inland navigation is not ready to meet the stringent requirements to meet the climate targets. This must be seen as an opportunity for investors as inland navigation can be an enabler towards a sustainable and climate neutral transport mode when new types of ships are build and provided. The challenge here is to provide accurate data to help investors make forward-looking decisions.

As looking to data in enabling stakeholders in the logistic chain in making decisions, we must also take into account the importance of the crossing point with other modes like smart hubs and data. The place to be build, size, etc. Can all be predicted by accurate data.

One of the objectives is to use the data we facilitate to offer ourselves and also third parties within an ecosystem the opportunity to develop innovative concepts, albeit always within a legal framework.

3 Step by Step Approach

In the future rational decisions will be made by supercomputers based on information from multiple sources. As a result we will notice that goods typically will no longer reach their destination via one mode of transport, but that the path of least resistance (the most climate-friendly in relation to the contract) will be chosen. In order to allow these decisions to be made in relation to the other transport modes (road, rail and air), it is therefore crucial that inland shipping can provide relevant transport and network data in a generic way. Inland navigation should act as one of these sources. We realize that it will take years to realize this goal. A step-by-step approach driven by use cases is proposed.

4 Use Case: Sharing Transport-Report and Location Information from Inland Vessels

As of 2022, all cargo movements in the Flanders region on inland shipping must be obligatory reported to the competent authority in a digital and standardized way. One stop shop principle is applied for the skipper. Today, this information is only used on an operational level by the competent authorities. As this information is also crucial as an enabler for a sustainable logistic chain in B2B -e.g. more efficient terminal planning leads to less congestion and less carbon pollution, a solution to share this data on a data sharing platform will be proposed. Conditions are a strict appointment system in relation with the legal requirements.

A project-based approach is proposed here. As a government organisation, we already have a solution of allowing data to flow through to all interested actors in the logistics chain. However, the authorization mechanism, albeit in accordance with the legal restrictions, is very strict and is experienced by all the actors involved as a barrier to integrating systems. A solution with an intermediate data platform seems appropriate. In this way the current actors, i.e. the shippers (and those who carry out the transports) can share data in a much simpler way with all other parties involved in the transport of the goods.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to build up the certain levels of trust and keep also the technological solutions in line.

The first step is unlocking location information from inland vessels towards the endusers.

Important to keep in mind is that “De Vlaamse Waterweg” is only acting as an intermediate in this relation. “De Vlaamse Waterweg” has the allowance to capture location information from inland vessels. Under certain conditions, end users, other than the vessel owners themselves may make use of this information. In all cases, the vessel owner should know who is using its data and also for what purposes. Also, a mechanism to control should be provided.

Figure 1 shows the solution that will be set up: “De Vlaamse Waterweg” will provide data to a Data Sharing platform. Legal agreements and governance rules are agreed upon. Endusers will be able to capture the data only on the data sharing platform.

Fig. 1.

A technological solution with an intermediate data platform

At the time the paper is submitted, a business case is in approval mode. Once approved, a project can be set up and planned.

5 Conclusion

Figure 2 the vision and ambition De Vlaamse Waterweg has on data sharing. As a waterway authority we are strong in building infrastructure to manage the actual vessels around the waterways. The next step is to build up a infostructure with all the relevant information we gather.

Fig. 2.

A infostructure with all the relevant information

As De Vlaamse Waterweg is not the only dataprovider to a datasharing platform and as endusers will not be restricted to inland navigation, we are confident that this will be best practice to encourage creativity and disruptive innovation.