The board of directors of Watertruck+ bvba has decided to initiate a second market consultation in order to have extra operators involved into the Watertruck project.
Watertruck is an innovative concept for the transport of goods on small waterways (CEMT I-IV) which can unlock the economic potential of a region by using small, self-propelled or unpropelled standardised barges. The concept, combined with small or large, environmentally friendly pushers, allows for a maximal flexibility of operations whilst maintaining a maximal regional scope, linking the small inland waterways to the TEN-T core network.
Project Watertruck
The economic feasibility of the concept was investigated in the Interreg project Watertruck, which ran from 2010 until 2014. As an outcome, the need was established to establish a master plan for the future of inland waterway transport on smaller waterways in Europe since the current fleet and its operators is ageing fast, resulting in a decrease of available deadweight on the market, and since the current carrying capacity and type of operations of the existing fleet make it economically challenging to compete with road transport.
Watertruck+
The goal of the Watertruck+ project, a TEN-T/CEF-project, is to provide the market with business cases for a large European fleet of vessels, rolling out the Watertruck concept across the various European regions.
As a first step, certain standards will be established in order to reduce production costs and improve the interoperability of the vessels, both in terms of sailing areas and in terms of cargo type. As a first step in the trans-European rollout, a small fleet will be constructed and deployed in a large-scale trial phase, shipping a dedicated volume of cargo per year.
State of Play
At this moment, the following actions are taken:
- Finalisation of the composition of group of logistics operators (investors) involved in the building of the vessels and the execution of the trial phase.
- Drafting of the construction tenders for the pushers and barges.
- Final optimised design of the standard barges for CEMT I and II waterways.
The construction tenders will be publicised at a European level and will allow the market to provide competitive and innovative offers for the construction of the vessels, which should start early 2017.
In the meantime, the composition of the Master Plan is under way, developing and deploying a calculation tool which can support local authorities, operators and shippers to build feasible regional or individual business cases for the deployment of Watertrucks. The project runs until the end of 2019.
Second Call
Through a second call, Watertruck+ hopes to find extra operators. Via this link, all specifications on this open call, indicated as Call II, can be found. Applicants are invited to submit their application by 10 October 2016 at 10:00 a.m.
Picture by Watertruck.
