title: River-Sea Freight Transport in Major Logistic Gateways: A Performance Evaluation of The United Kingdom And Continental Europe’s Inland Waterways
Creators: name: Gbako, S
Publisher: name: Liverpool John Moores University
Year: 2024

description: Globalisation and commercialisation have greatly expanded the growth, complexity, and competitiveness of logistic chains. Due to this growth, the high demand for intermodal transport systems has led to the need for continued and integrated transport planning to enhance transport reliability and efficiency. The ever-increasing acknowledgement of the external outcomes of transport has necessitated the development of a more sustainable transport mode. Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) has reinforced its reliance on maritime access even more strongly than in the past. According to the rhythms of increasing pressure from the globalisation market flow, European seaports with suitable inland waterway network connectivity form an interface. As a direct result, the IWT players have become more integrated into modern logistics systems due to increased freight volume and the integration of supply chains. The advancements are compelling the IWT industry to adapt and redefine its operations and strategic positionings. Incorporating waterways into the freight transportation network has led to the development of increasingly complex organisational structures that leverage cost, capacity, and regularity advantages. The expanding supply chain and the increasing need for efficiency and reliability require enhanced performance and assessment measures. Therefore, the study aims to develop a system model that shows how all pertinent aspects and factors influencing performance perception in IWT can be identified and modelled. This study undertakes empirical studies in the IWT sector of the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, and the UK in order to accomplish the research objectives. The study design is segmented into three sections. 
First, various IWT performance factors were identified through a systematic literature review. Next, the identified performance factors are validated through a series of empirical studies (experts were consulted using advanced questionnaires and semi-structured interviews). Finally, the performance factors are prioritised using a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. The performance level of the case study countries was benchmarked using the technique for order performance by similarity to the ideal solution method based on the critical success factor. Their relative ranking has been determined according to the benchmark. This study categorises and verifies performance criteria into eight categories and forty-three subcategories. The novel eight categories are mobility and reliability, efficiency and profitability, infrastructure conditions, environmental impact and decarbonisation, safety and security, efficiency and profitability, innovative transport technology, and policy formulation and implementation. The capacity of IWT to provide efficient and reliable transportation services is crucial for the seamless operations of the supply chain. The findings indicate that performance associated with mobility and reliability has the highest priority and is of the utmost importance, followed by infrastructure condition, which, to the competitiveness of IWT, largely depends significantly on the quality of waterway infrastructure as missing links and bottlenecks limits the effectiveness of the transportation network.
Finally, the performance approaches were ranked. The Netherlands (Rotterdam gateway) has the highest performance in terms of freight transportation via waterways, followed by Germany (Hamburg gateway), Belgium (Antwerp gateway) came third, next was France (Seine gateway), and the least among these gateways was the UK (Thames/Liverpool/Manchester) with a distance rating among the case studies. Statistics revealed that while the four European case study countries were high, the corresponding value for the UK regional gateways remained very low. The margin by which the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and France lead the UK shows how these countries and their strategic positioning have adapted inland shipping operations, aligning with the demands and dynamics of the global market. This study offers a more effective, robust, and efficient way to identify performance factors and enhance the efficiency of IWT operations. The study is the first to systematically identify, evaluate, categorise, and provide a detailed analysis of all pertinent performance measures in the field of IWT. Policymakers and industry practitioners can utilise the research findings to identify essential performance factors for enhancing decision-making and advancing progress. These performance index metrics can serve as new methods and tools, allowing stakeholders to measure the performance of their IWT.