The reliability and efficiency of the supply chain is essential in maintaining the standards of living and levels of accessibility the general population is accustomed to enjoying. Meeting the expectations of the ever-demanding global consumer is a challenge exacerbated by population growth, congestion, limited investments, environmental pressures and aging equipment.<\/p>\n
Historically, investment in maritime solutions has focussed on port infrastructure spending, creating larger, higher capacity and more efficient terminals. In doing so, cargo terminals have moved further away from populated city centres, driven by land availability, rising costs, ease of access and environmental issues.<\/p>\n
However, with this shift comes the demand for reliable connections to the hinterland, which are usually road or rail based. Simultaneously, however, road and rail transportation are also becoming more congested and subsequently contributing to deteriorating air quality and rising carbon emissions \u2013 leaving us with the responsibility to look for greener, cleaner and healthier alternatives.<\/p>\n
WATER FREIGHT CONNECTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n With water freight already established as the most cost-effective way of transporting goods around the world, we must question why it is not being more commonly used for local distribution within countries, particularly in densely populated areas where last mile delivery is more challenging.<\/p>\n Major European ports, such as Rotterdam are already transshipping large volumes of cargo onto barges, moving goods along the Rhine to destinations in the hinterland, including as far away as Switzerland, without requiring land-based transport systems.<\/p>\n Electric barges, or \u2018Tesla ships\u2019 are also being developed, suggesting that this trend holds some weight. Cargo that is less sensitive to delivery time (e.g. nonfoodstuffs), can afford this slower yet more efficient transportation solution.<\/p>\n While the concept of increasing the modal split towards river and canal transportation is less applicable in places like the Middle East and similar geographic regions, coastal services provide the same advantages. Again, this concept already exists in a form, with feeder services already moving cargo from large port facilities to smaller ports, albeit on a much larger scale, with bigger feeder vessels serving smaller ports.<\/p>\n In the United Arab Emirates, for example, DP World\u2019s Unifeeder regional trade solutions can deliver as far afield as India, giving access to a wider customer base. Similarly, the latest feeder service to be announced by Abu Dhabi Ports\u2019, Safeen Feeders, further underlines that this concept is becoming a more critical component of supply chain nodes in the region overall.<\/p>\n These feeder services are utilising larger vessels, but in coastal waters where the sea is relatively calm, such as the Red Sea or the Arabian Gulf, coastal barges or smaller feeder vessels may well be a viable solution.<\/p>\n WATER FREIGHT FOR THE FUTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n By focussing on the development of smaller water-freight logistics solutions, technological developments, which are currently not suitable for the large ocean-going container vessels, can be looked at in more detail.<\/p>\n Shipbuilders are attempting to develop the world\u2019s first zero emission, autonomous container feeder vessel. These fully electric and, in some cases, autonomous container vessels have been estimated to reduce diesel-powered truck transport by around 40,000 journeys per year, per vessel.<\/p>\n In fact, autonomous vessels are already in operation in the Middle East, with DP World launching autonomous security boats in 2020. These can be remotely controlled from a central control room, allowing them to function day or night.<\/p>\n With container terminals and portside equipment becoming more automated, it is not an inconceivable step to see larger-scale, automated cargo vessels come into operation within the next decade.<\/p>\n With autonomous mooring and berthing systems already in operation, the berthing of these vessels in a cargo terminal should prove to be technically feasible. These systems, combined with autonomous cargo handling, could allow the entire cargo handling operation to be undertaken automatically. Operational efficiencies and significant safety improvements are also envisaged.<\/p>\n To facilitate a seamless transfer system for goods, careful planning and design is essential to control the interface between a port and a vessel. From an engineering standpoint, one solution may be dedicated infrastructure design.<\/p>\n Rather than providing a length of quay that permits berthing along its entire length, the design would be for a specific vessel type. This may be a new concept for container terminals, which are designed for a range of vessels, owned and operated by parties that do not necessarily have an interest in a port.<\/p>\n An example of this concept can be seen at ferry terminals, where the vessel owner\/operator is often the terminal owner\/operator too, thus allowing infrastructure and vessels to be designed to perfectly complement each other.<\/p>\n Scandlines in Denmark and Germany, is a good example, developing port infrastructure facilitating automated mooring and berthing, and therefore extremely rapid loading and discharging of ro-ro traffic and overall turnaround time.<\/p>\n COMPELLING SOLUTION<\/strong><\/p>\n Efficient and highly integrated vessel and terminal operations are not just a possibility, they are a probability. With major operators expanding capabilities in the wider logistics sector, including feeder services, a look to transport modes of the past could spark a new era of fully integrated, autonomous transshipment services and vessels operating before the turn of the next decade.<\/p>\n As cities and roads grow more congested, resulting in current modes of freight transportation grinding to a literal halt, utilising existing rivers, canals and coastal routes could offer a compelling solution to transport goods efficiently, autonomously, and intelligently. In turn, this could ultimately help society navigate the future and leave logistical and environmental challenges behind.<\/p>\n Richard Crowther is an Associate Maritime Engineer, based in Dubai for WSP Middle East.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Richard Crowther, Associate Maritime Engineer of consultancy firm WSP, asks if historicwaterways combined with vessel automation, and in some cases integrated vessel\/berthdesign, hold the key to unlocking effective supply chain solutions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-1360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-container-cargo-handling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1360"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=1360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}