8. COMPANIES, EMPLOYMENT, TURNOVER AND PERSONNEL COSTS73

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• In 2023, 5,462 companies were active in IWW freight transport across Europe, with 87% based in Rhine countries, particularly in the Netherlands (59% of total). The Danube region, though representing only 4.8% of companies, accounted for 13% of employment due to larger average company size. Employment in the freight sector has shown a slightly negative trend since 2010, with 22,844 people employed in 2022. By contrast, in terms of company numbers, IWW passenger transport saw growth, with 4,659 companies in 2023 – 42% in Rhine countries, 13% in Danube countries, and 29% in southern Europe. Employment in this segment reached 23,945 in 2023, rebounding after the pandemic. Germany, Italy, and Switzerland accounted for 61% of total passenger employment.
• Turnover in IWW freight transport in the EU-27 (plus Switzerland and Serbia) reached approximately €7.5 billion in 2023, down from €7.8 billion in 2022. Rhine countries generated 92% of this figure, led by the Netherlands and Germany. In IWW passenger transport, turnover climbed significantly to €3.5 billion in 2023 (from €2.7 billion in 2022), continuing its recovery from the pandemic. Rhine countries accounted for 94% of passenger turnover.
• Labour costs per employee and per year in 2022 averaged €32,830 in freight transport and €23,590 in passenger transport across the EU. Costs were highest in western and northern Europe – especially Switzerland, Finland, and Germany – and lowest in eastern Europe.

 

    FIGURES 1 AND 2: DEVELOPMENT OF THE 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

     

    COMPANIES AND EMPLOYMENT IN FREIGHT TRANSPORT

    • According to Eurostat figures, 5,462 IWW freight transport companies were active in Europe (EU-27 plus Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Switzerland) in 2023.74 Around 87% (4,725 in absolute numbers) were registered in Rhine countries.75 The Netherlands alone comprised 3,203 IWW freight companies, which represents 59% of the total number in Europe and 68% of the number in Rhine countries. Since 2011, the trend in the number of IWW freight transport companies in Europe has been declining slightly (see figure 1). The number of companies in 2023 was 9% lower than in 2011
    • The number of companies in Danube countries is relatively low (26176 which is equivalent to a share of 4.8%), compared to the share that the Danube has within total transport performance on EU-27 inland waterways (21%).77 In this regard, it should be noted that companies in the Danube region are larger on average, which means that they have more employed persons on average than companies in the Rhine region. This difference in size can mainly be explained by historical reasons. Indeed, many companies in the Danube region are former state-owned companies which are larger than private companies.

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      FIGURE 3: NUMBER OF COMPANIES IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN EUROPE IN 2023 *


      Sources: Eurostat [sbs_na_1a_se_r2] and [sbs_sc_ovw]
      * Data for Slovakia refer to 2022, data for Serbia to 2020 as data for 2021-2023 are unavailable for reasons of confidentiality. For Italy and Poland, the high number of companies relative to freight volumes is influenced by the structure of the inland waterway sector. In both countries, the majority of enterprises are very small. In Poland, only about 60% of companies classified under inland waterway transport are active in freight transport; many report only their fleet or perform technical services rather than transporting cargo. This can explain the rather high figures observed for both countries compared to the rather low inland navigation transport activity in these countries.

       

    • The number of employed persons in IWW freight transport includes self-employed, helping family members and employees. The total number of this variable was 22,844 in 2022.78 The number of persons employed in Rhine countries accounted for 81%, persons employed in Danube countries for 13% and persons employed in companies in countries outside the Rhine and Danube regions, for 6%. The trend in the number of persons employed was slightly negative between 2010 and 2022. The decrease between these two years was -6%.

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      FIGURE 4: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN EUROPE IN 2023 *


      Sources: Eurostat [sbs_na_1a_se_r2] and [sbs_sc_ovw]
      * Data for France and Slovakia refer to 2022. Data for Serbia refer to 2020. For Italy and Poland, the high number of employees relative to freight volumes is influenced by the structure of the inland waterway sector. In Poland, only about 60% of companies classified under inland waterway transport are active in freight transport; many report only their fleet or perform technical services rather than transporting cargo. This can explain the rather high figures observed compared to the rather low inland waterway transport activity.

       

    • It can be observed that Germany has more than twice as many employed persons in IWW freight transport than France, while France has a higher number of companies. These data reflect the smaller average size of French companies compared to German companies. French companies had 3.2 employed persons per company in 2023 compared to 9.7 persons per company in Germany.
    • 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 4,659 in 2023.79 The geographical distribution shows that 42% of them are registered in Rhine countries, while those registered in Danube countries represent 13%. In contrast to IWW freight transport, southern European countries have a rather high share within passenger transport companies (29% in 2023). Furthermore, Scandinavian countries represented 10% of all passenger transport companies in 2023.
    • Between 2011 and 2023, the number of IWW passenger transport companies in Europe followed a rather steady upward trend (see figure 1). As a result, the number of companies in 2023 was 40% higher than in 2011.
    • The three countries with the highest number of companies are the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. In terms of the number of companies, Switzerland ranks in the middle of the European countries. However, as is seen below, Switzerland ranks on position 3 when it comes to employment in passenger transport. The reason for this divergence is the fact that Switzerland hosts many river cruise companies which have a higher number of employees than other types of companies in passenger transport.

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      FIGURE 5: NUMBER OF IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT COMPANIES IN EUROPE IN 2023 *


      Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
      * Data for Serbia and Bulgaria refer to 2022. For Poland, the high number of companies is influenced by the structure of the inland waterway sector. In Poland, the majority of enterprises are very small and only about 60% of companies classified under inland waterway transport are active in freight transport; many report only their fleet or perform technical services rather than transporting cargo. This can explain the rather high figures observed for Poland compared to the rather low inland navigation transport activity.

       

    • The total number of persons employed in European IWW passenger transport amounted to 23,945 in 2023. The development for the years 2020-2023 shows an impact and a recovery from the Covid pandemic (see figure 2). Hence, in 2023, the number of persons employed returned to its upward trend that is visible for the time period 2010-2023.
    • Regarding the number of companies, the Netherlands are on rank 1. However, this country is only on rank 5 when it comes to the number of persons employed. The reason is that the Netherlands have many day trip companies in cities such as Amsterdam. The size of these day trip companies is mostly small, compared to the large river cruise companies, which are often located in Switzerland or Germany.
    • Regarding employment, Germany takes the lead ahead of Italy and Switzerland. Around 61% of all persons employed in IWW passenger transport are employed in one of these countries. In these three countries, the transport of passengers is rather high, due to many inland waterways (including lakes) and – in the case of Germany and Switzerland – due to many river cruise companies.

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      FIGURE 6: NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT IN EUROPE IN 2023 *


      Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
      * Data for Poland and Serbia refer to 2022.

       

    • About 68% of all persons employed in EU inland waterway passenger transport are employed in Rhine countries. The share of Danube countries amounts to 10%, the share of southern European countries is 24% and the share of Scandinavian countries is 7%.

     

    TURNOVER

      TURNOVER IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT

      • In 2023, for IWW freight companies in the EU-27 (plus Switzerland and Serbia), a turnover of approximately 7.5 billion euro was registered, compared to 7.8 billion euro in 2022 and 6.1 billion euro in 2021.80 Rhine countries accounted for approximately 6.9 billion euro (92% of the turnover in the EU-27, plus Switzerland and Serbia). For the two largest countries in IWW freight transport, the Netherlands and Germany, an upward trend can be observed since 2018.

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        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 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 (included) cannot be compared with data from 2021 onwards.
        * The value for Dutch companies for data until 2020 (included) 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 (included) was converted into euros according to the yearly average exchange rate.

         

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

        20222023
        Dutch companies 3,8083,249
        German companies2,3662,513
        French companies 406401
        Belgian companies289353
        Swiss companies244348
        Rhine countries 7,1136,864

        Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]

         

      • The estimated turnover generated in IWW freight transport companies registered in Danube countries amounted to 528 million euro in 2022, and 542 million euro in 2023. Hereby, the data for Serbia are missing for both years, the data for Austria are missing for 2022 and the data for Slovakia are missing for 2023.

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

        20222023
        Romanian companies238265
        Serbian companies*109109
        Hungarian companies6970
        Bulgarian companies6062
        Slovakian companies4949
        Austrian companies3034
        Croatian companies32
        Danube countries *528542

        Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
        * Data for Serbia refer to 2020, data for Austria and Slovakia are estimated.

         

      • Within European regions outside of the Rhine and Danube areas, the countries with the highest turnover81 are Italy (59 million euro), Sweden (52 million euro), Poland (52 million euro) and Czech Republic (36 million euro).

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      TURNOVER IN IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT

      • Regarding turnover in the EU (plus Switzerland and Serbia) for IWW passenger companies in 2023, approximately 3.5 billion euro was registered, compared to 2.7 billion euro in 2022 and 1.6 billion euro in 2021.
      • Rhine countries82 accounted for approximately 3.3 billion euro in 2023, a share of 94% 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 on rivers, day trips on lakes, river cruises or ferry traffic). For some countries, the turnover figures are based almost entirely on river cruise activities or day trip activities or on both activities.
      • The curves for turnover in IWW passenger transport reflect a strong recovery that took place in 2022 and 2023 from the covid pandemic. The turnover values that were reached in these years are often higher than the pre-pandemic levels.

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        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 (included) cannot be compared with data from 2021 onwards.
        * The values for Dutch companies for years until 2020 (included) 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 (included) was converted to euros according to the yearly average exchange rate. Data were unavailable for many countries until 2020.

         

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

        20222023
        Swiss companies 868 (e)1,228
        Dutch companies 755913
        German companies528587
        French companies 406513
        Belgian companies1716
        Rhine countries 2,574 *3,257

        Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
        * Includes an estimation for Switzerland as data were unavailable in 2022. (e) = estimation.

         

      • For companies in Danube countries, the existing data83 show significantly lower values than in Rhine countries. For some years and countries, some data are unavailable. This indicates often very low economic activities of an industry, so that data are not high enough to be disseminated (for reasons of confidentiality).
      • The generally low values of Danube countries regarding turnover for IWW passenger transport does not point to low passenger transport numbers on the Danube in general. It rather points to a combination of factors, such as the fact that most river cruises on the Danube are operated by companies that have their headquarter in Rhine countries. In this case, turnover is counted within Rhine countries and not within Danube countries. Furthermore, the turnover in a Danube country might be very low, because of low 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.

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

        20222023
        Austrian companies76 (e)95
        Hungarian companies3137
        Romanian companies2022
        Slovakian companies14 (e)14
        Serbian companies3 (e)3
        Croatian companies23
        Companies from Bosnia-Herzegovina1 (e)1
        Danube countries *147175

        Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
        * Includes estimations for Austria, Slovakia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina. (e) = estimation.

         

      • Two countries in Europe outside the Rhine and Danube region with a considerable level of turnover in IWW passenger transport are Italy (738 million euro in 2023) and Sweden (176 million euro in 2023). It can be noted that for Italy, the turnover is almost entirely generated from day trips activity on lakes and on passenger transport in Venice.

     
     

    UNIT LABOUR COSTS PER PERSON EMPLOYED

    • In inland waterway transport, the level of unit labour costs per person employed depends on the region in Europe. The highest values in IWW passenger transport are observed in Iceland, Switzerland and Denmark. For IWW freight transport, the highest values are found in Switzerland, Finland and Germany. In general terms, unit labour costs per person employed are relatively high in countries in northern and western Europe, and relatively low in eastern Europe. The average value for the European Union (European Union – 27) was 23,590 euro in 2022 in IWW passenger transport. For IWW freight transport, the average value for the European Union (European Union – 27) was 32,830 euro in 2022.

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      FIGURE 9: UNIT LABOUR COSTS PER PERSON EMPLOYED PER COUNTRY IN IWW PASSENGER TRANSPORT IN 2022 (IN 1,000 EURO)


      Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
      * Data for Switzerland and Austria are for 2021.

       

      FIGURE 10: UNIT LABOUR COSTS PER PERSON EMPLOYED PER COUNTRY IN IWW FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN 2022 (IN 1,000 EURO)


      Source: Eurostat [sbs_sc_ovw]
      * Data for Austria are for 2021.
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