8. COMPANIES, EMPLOYMENT, TURNOVER AND PERSONNEL COSTS

• According to Eurostat figures, 5,486 IWW freight transport companies were active in Europe (EU-27 plus Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Switzerland) in 2020. Around 88% (4,809 in absolute numbers) are registered in Rhine countries. In 2020 the number of employed persons in freight transport was 22,417. Rhine countries account for 75%, Danube countries for 17% and companies in countries outside the Rhine and Danube regions for 8%.
• The number of IWW passenger companies in Europe (EU-27 plus Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Switzerland) was 4,406 in 2021. The geographical distribution shows that 42% of them are registered in Rhine countries. Southern Europe accounts for 26%, eastern Europe for 17% and Scandinavia for 11%. The total number of persons employed in European IWW passenger transport amounted to 19,908 in 2022.
• In 2022, a turnover of approximately 7.5 billion euro was registered for IWW freight companies in the EU-27 (plus Switzerland and Serbia), which represents an increase of +25% compared to 2021. For IWW passenger companies, approximately 2.8 billion euro was registered in 2022, an increase of +72% compared to 2021.

 
Most data for this chapter are available until 2022.⁵⁵
 

FIGURES 1 AND 2: DEVELOPMENT OF NUMBER OF COMPANIES AND EMPLOYMENT IN FREIGHT AND PASSENGER TRANSPORT IN THE INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPORT SECTOR IN EUROPE *




Sources: Eurostat [sbs_na_1a_se_r2] until 2020 and [sbs_sc_ovw] from 2021 onwards
* Data for 2021 and 2022 in freight transport are estimated.

 

COMPANIES AND EMPLOYMENT IN FREIGHT TRANSPORT

• According to Eurostat figures, 5,486 IWW freight transport companies were active in Europe (EU-27 plus Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Switzerland) in 2020.⁵⁶ Around 88% (4,809 in absolute numbers) are registered in Rhine countries.⁵⁷ In the Netherlands alone, 3,279 IWW freight companies are counted, which represents 60% of the total number in Europe and 68% of the number in Rhine countries.
• The number of companies in Danube countries is relatively low (201 which is equivalent to a share of 4%), compared to the share that the Danube has within total transport performance on EU-27 inland waterways (18%). It should be mentioned that companies in the Danube region have a far higher number of employed persons on average than companies in the Rhine region. Eastern European countries taken together (including Danube countries) account for 9% of all IWW freight companies in the EU-27, and southern European and Scandinavian countries account for 2% each.

 

FIGURE 3: NUMBER OF COMPANIES IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN EUROPE IN 2022 *


Source: Eurostat [sbs_na_1a_se_r2] and [sbs_sc_ovw]
* Data for Belgium and Serbia refer to 2020.

 
• The number of employed persons in freight transport includes self-employed, helping family members and employees. The total number of this variable was at 22,417 in 2020.⁵⁸ Rhine countries account for 75%, Danube countries for 17% and companies in countries outside the Rhine and Danube regions for 8%.

 

FIGURE 4: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN EUROPE IN 2022 *


Source: Eurostat [sbs_na_1a_se_r2] and [sbs_sc_ovw]
* Data for Belgium and Serbia refer to 2020.

 
• It should be noted that figures obtained from national labour market institutions or from other national offices might differ substantially from figures obtained from Eurostat, due to different statistical labour market concepts. For cross-country comparisons, Eurostat is treated as the preferred source because data are harmonised across countries and are thus comparable.

 
 

COMPANIES AND EMPLOYMENT IN PASSENGER TRANSPORT

• The number of IWW passenger companies in Europe (EU-27 plus Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Switzerland) was 4,406 in 2021.⁵⁹ The geographical distribution shows that 42% of them are registered in Rhine countries. Southern Europe accounts for 26%, eastern Europe for 17% and Scandinavia for 11%. Danube countries are considered in this sense a part of eastern Europe. If they were counted separately, they would represent 12%.

 

FIGURE 5: NUMBER OF IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT COMPANIES IN EUROPE IN 2022


Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]

 
• The total number of persons employed in European IWW passenger transport amounted to 19,908 in 2022 and was therefore +8% higher than in the previous year. The explanation for this increase is the recovery from the Covid pandemic, which had led to a sharp decrease in passenger transport and had an impact on employment.

 

FIGURE 6: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT IN EUROPE IN 2022


Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
* Data for Malta refer to 2021.

 
• In the order of 74% of all persons employed in EU inland waterway passenger transport are employed in Rhine countries. The share of Danube countries amounts to 12%.

 

TURNOVER

TURNOVER IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT

• In 2022, for IWW freight companies in the EU-27 (plus Switzerland and Serbia), a turnover of approximately 7.5 billion Euro was registered, an increase of +25% compared to 2021 (6.0 billion in 2021). Rhine countries⁶⁰ accounted for approximately 6.9 billion Euro (92% of the turnover in the EU-27, plus Switzerland and Serbia), an increase of +18% compared to 2021.

 

FIGURE 7: ANNUAL TURNOVER IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN RHINE AND DANUBE COUNTRIES
(IN MILLION EURO) *




Sources: Eurostat [sbs_na_1a_se_r2], [sbs_sc_ovw], Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS-NL) for data before 2021, Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA-CH) for data before 2021, CCNR estimation based on data from Eurostat for France for the year 2019.
For Switzerland and the Netherlands, a break in the data can be observed from 2021 onwards. This is due to the use of Eurostat figures from 2021 onwards derived form a new database [sbs_sc_ovw]. Turnover data were missing in the former Eurostat database [sbs_na_1a_se_r2] for these two countries, leading to the use of national databases from CBS and FTA for years before 2021. Therefore, for these two countries, data available up until 2020 cannot be compared with data from 2021 onwards.
* The value for Dutch companies for data until 2020 are an estimation based on net turnover data for the entire inland navigation sector in the Netherlands. Therefore, the statistical office CBS estimates that 92% of total turnover is related to freight transport. Value for Swiss companies for data until 2020 was converted into Euro according to the yearly average exchange rate.

 

TABLE 1: TURNOVER IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN RHINE COUNTRIES (IN MILLION EURO)

	2021	2022
Dutch companies	3,202	4,017
German companies	1,910	2,019
French companies	364	406
Belgian companies	222	259
Swiss companies	174	220
Rhine countries *	5,872	6,921


Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
* Values for Belgium were estimated.

 
• Turnover generated in inland waterway freight transport companies registered in Danube countries amounted to 570 million Euro in 2022, an increase of +51% compared to 2021.

 

TABLE 2: TURNOVER IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN DANUBE COUNTRIES (IN MILLION EURO)

	2021	2022
Serbian companies	109	109
Romanian companies	118	238
Hungarian companies	50	69
Slovakian companies	37	49
Bulgarian companies	33	60
Austrian companies	27	43
Croatian companies	2	2
Danube countries *	376	570


Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
* Values for Serbia were estimated.

 
• Within European regions outside of the Rhine and Danube area, the countries with the highest turnover (all values for 2022) are Italy (59 million Euro), Sweden (52 million Euro), Poland (52 million Euro) and the Czech Republic (36 million Euro).

 

 

TURNOVER IN IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT

• Regarding the turnover in EU (plus Switzerland and Serbia) for IWW passenger companies in 2022, approximately 2.8 billion Euro was registered, an increase of +72% compared to 2021 (1.6 billion in 2021).
• Rhine countries accounted for approximately 2.3 billion Euro, an increase of +58% compared to 2021 and a share of 83% within total IWW passenger turnover in Europe.
• It is important to note that the following turnover figures include those generated by all passenger market segments (day trips, river cruises or ferries). For some countries, the turnover figures are based almost entirely on river cruise activities or day trip activities.

 

FIGURE 8: ANNUAL TURNOVER IN IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT IN MOST RELEVANT COUNTRIES
(IN MILLION EURO) *


Sources: Eurostat [sbs_na_1a_se_r2] until 2020, [sbs_sc_ovw] from 2021 onwards, Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS-NL) for data before 2021, Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA-CH) for data before 2021 and CCNR estimation based on data from Eurostat only for France for the year 2019.
For Switzerland and the Netherlands, a break in the data can be observed from 2021 onwards. This is due to the use of Eurostat figures from 2021 onwards derived form a new database [sbs_sc_ovw]. Turnover data for these two countries were missing in the former Eurostat database [sbs_na_1a_se_r2], leading to the use of national databases from CBS and FTA for years before 2021. Therefore, for these two countries, data until 2020 cannot be compared with data from 2021 onwards.
* The values for Dutch companies for years until 2020 are an estimation based on net turnover data for the entire inland navigation sector in the Netherlands. In this instance, the statistical office CBS estimates that 8% of total turnover is related to passenger transport. Value for Swiss companies until 2020 was converted to Euro according to the yearly average exchange rate. Data unavailable for many countries until 2020.

 

TABLE 3: TURNOVER IN IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT IN RHINE COUNTRIES (IN MILLION EURO)

	2021	2022
Dutch companies	437	773
Swiss companies	507	623
German companies	315	518
French companies	204	387
Belgian companies	11	24
Rhine countries *	1,474	2,325


Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
* The value for Belgium for 2021 was estimated.

 
• Danube countries accounted for approximately 168 million Euro, an increase of +77% compared to 2021.
• For companies in Danube countries, the existing data show significantly lower values than in Rhine countries. This can be explained by lower wage levels in Danube countries. Lower wages and therefore lower personnel costs imply lower total costs, especially in passenger transport which is quite labour-intensive. Lower total costs, in return, imply lower price levels and therefore also lower turnover figures.
• As a second explanation, it should be recalled that large parts of the activities in passenger transport on the Danube, in particular river cruising, is carried out by companies from the Rhine region.

 

TABLE 4: TURNOVER IN IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT IN DANUBE COUNTRIES (IN MILLION EURO)

	2021	2022
Austrian companies	56	104
Hungarian companies	26	31
Romanian companies	11	20
Slovakian companies	n.d.	11
Serbian companies	2	n.d.
Croatian companies	n.d.	2
Danube countries *	95	168


Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
* Without missing values.
 
• Two countries in Europe outside the Rhine and Danube region with a considerable level of turnover in IWW passenger transport are Italy (402 million Euro in 2022) and Sweden (199 million Euro in 2022). It can be noted that for Italy, the turnover is almost entirely generated from day trips activity. Both countries registered a considerable increase in 2022 due to the recovery from the Covid pandemic.

 
 

UNIT LABOUR COSTS PER PERSON EMPLOYED

 

• In inland waterway transport, the level of unit labour costs per person employed depends upon the region in Europe. The highest values in IWW passenger transport are observed in Switzerland and in Norway. For IWW freight transport, the highest values are found in Finland and in Austria. In general terms, unit labour costs per person employed are relatively high in northern and western Europe, and relatively low in eastern Europe.

 

FIGURE 9: UNIT LABOUR COSTS PER PERSON EMPLOYED PER COUNTRY IN IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT IN 2021 (IN 1,000 EURO)


Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
 

FIGURE 10: NIT LABOUR COSTS PER PERSON EMPLOYED PER COUNTRY IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN 2021 (IN 1,000 EURO)


Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]