Glossary

20XX-1/20XX-Q1: first quarter
20XX-2/20XX-Q2: second quarter
20XX-3/20XX-Q3: third quarter
ACTUAL DRAUGHT OF A VESSEL: the vertical distance between the vessel’s keel and the waterline at which the vessel is sailing. For a moving vessel, the actual draught comprises also the squat effect (see ‘SQUAT EFFECT’ in this glossary).
ACTUAL WATER LEVEL: a measurement indicated on a water level stick that is installed at or near the shore of a river at a gauge station. It does not measure the actual depth of the river, as rivers become deeper in their mid-section. Actual water levels are nevertheless needed to calculate the available draught for the navigation of a vessel on a particular river stretch.
ADN: European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways
ARA REGION: Amsterdam – Rotterdam – Antwerp
ARTICLE 12 OF REGULATION (EC) NO. 883/2004 ON THE COORDINATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEMS: provides for an exception to the lex loci laboris rule. It allows for a person working as an employed person in the territory of a Member State – on behalf of an employer that normally carries out its activities in that State, and who is sent by that employer to another Member State to perform work there for that employer – continues to be subject to the legislation of the posting State provided that the anticipated duration of that work does not exceed 24 months, and he or she is not sent to replace another person. The same rules apply with respect to self-employed persons who pursue an activity as a self-employed person in a Member State and who go to pursue a similar activity in another Member State. This means that social security contributions are paid according to the legislation of the employer’s home state or where the self-employed person is established (the ‘sending state’).
AVAILABLE OR POSSIBLE DRAUGHT OF A VESSEL: the maximum depth to which the vessel may be safely immersed when loaded with cargo. Both for inland and for seagoing vessels, this depth varies with the ship’s dimensions. For seagoing vessels, it depends also on the time of the year and the mass density of the water encountered. The available draught of inland vessels sailing on free-flowing rivers takes into account several parameters that are specific to each river stretch and gauge station. It is calculated as follows:
Available draught = Minimum navigation channel depth + (Actual water level – Equivalent water level) – Under keel clearance.
AVERAGE UTILISATION RATE (OF A CARGO FLEET): relation between the utilised cargo carrying capacity (needed due to transport demand in a certain year) and the available capacity of the fleet in that same year, in percentage terms.
BACKWARDATION: describes a situation where the actual spot market price for a commodity is higher than the expected price in the future. In a backwardation situation, the future prices decrease proportionally in relation to the time prior to the expiry date of the future contract. In other words, the price decreases as the expiry date becomes more distant. Backwardation reflects the expectation of decreasing prices for a commodity, due to different influencing factors regarding the supply/demand ratio. The opposite of backwardation is contango.
BARREL: 1 barrel (bbl) = 159 litres. This unit is used for the oil price which is given in Euro per barrel.
BIBB: Federal institute for Vocational Education and Training
BLACK SEA GRAIN INITIATIVE: initiative on the Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports. It is an agreement between Russia and Ukraine made with Turkey and the (UN) during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was signed on 22 July 2022 and was set to expire on 19 November 2022. On 17 November 2022, the UN and Ukraine announced that the agreement had been extended for a further 120 days. In March of that year, Turkey and the UN announced that they secured a second extension for at least another 60 days. In May 2023, the deal was once again extended for 60 days, expiring on 18 July.
BN: billion
CAPACITY UTILISATION (IN PASSENGER TRANSPORT): ratio of the number of passengers divided by the passenger capacity in a given year, in percentage points. The analysis of the capacity utilisation of a fleet makes it possible to provide a thorough overview of how the supply/demand relationship evolves throughout the years.
CBR: Central Office for Motor Vehicle Driver Testing
CEMT: Classification of European Inland Waterways
CENTRAL EUROPEAN WATERWAYS: Rhine, Main, Main-Danube Canal, Danube, Elbe-Oder
CESNI: European Committee for Drawing up Standards in the field of Inland Navigation
CESNI/QP: CESNI Working group on professional qualifications
CIRCULAR ECONOMY: according to Eurostat, a circular economy aims to maintain the value of products, materials and resources for as long as possible by returning them to the product cycle at the end of their use and while minimising the generation of waste.
CONNECTING EUROPE FACILITY II PROGRAMME (CEF II): an EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment at European level.
CONSTANT PANEL: this means that for each year, the same stations per city were chosen. Within this panel, stations near the city centre are found, as well as stations on the outskirts of the city. This helps to create an average and a more representative emission value for a city, as the city centre has higher emissions due to more traffic than stations on the outskirts.
CONTAINER EXCHANGE ROUTE (CER): in the Netherlands, this route links Maasvlakte’s container companies and allows the companies to minimise the cost of container exchanges. This improves their respective hinterland and transhipment process and strengthens Rotterdam’s competitive position as a container hub.
CONTANGO: a situation where spot market prices are below prices for a future delivery of oil products.
CORE INFLATION: general increase in the consumer price of goods and services, excluding those that are often more volatile, such as energy and food prices.
CPTPP: Comprehensive and Progressive agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership
DANUBE COUNTRIES: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine
DANUBE SOLIDARITY LANES EU-UKRAINE: lanes aimed at facilitating the forwarding of agricultural produce from Ukraine, but also bilateral trade in goods and access of Ukraine to international markets and global supply chains making sure much needed cereals reach the world market.
DEADWEIGHT (DWT): it is the maximum loading capacity of a ship, therefore the maximum weight that it can carry (measured in tonnes). This weight includes cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew. It does not include the empty weight or lightweight of the vessel itself. The sum of deadweight and lightweight of a ship gives the maximum displacement (measured in tonnes).
DARES: Direction de l’Animation de la recherche, des Études et des Statistiques. DARES is a directorate of the French central public administration, reporting to the Ministry of Labour. The DARES compiles and analyses statistics concerning the labour market in France.
DIRECTIVE (EU) 2017/2397 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL OF 12 DECEMBER 2017: a directive on the recognition of professional qualifications in inland navigation and repealing Council Directives 91/672/EEC and 96/50/EC
DIRECTIVE (2018/957) or POSTED WORKERS DIRECTIVE (PWD): clarifies that when sent by their employer to another Member State to carry out a service on the employer’s behalf, core terms and conditions of employment, such as minimum paid holidays, minimum rest time, maximum working time, remuneration, etc. will have to be applied according to host Member State rules, while the rest of the conditions will be governed by the law applicable to the employment relationship. In case of a long-term posting, which exceeds 12 months (or 18 months in case of motivated notification made by the employer), all terms and conditions of the host Member State will become applicable.
Since its revision in 2018, all sectors, with the exception of the international road transport sector, are now subject to the payment of ‘remuneration’ and all its mandatory elements. While to date posted workers were only guaranteed the minimum rates of pay of the host Member State, they are now entitled to domestic collective bargaining wages (stemming from universally applicable collective agreements) including premiums for qualification or seniority and also to all additional benefits such as holiday and Christmas allowances, so that the rules of remuneration must be the same for posted workers as for local workers.
DRAUGHT OF A VESSEL: distance between the vessel’s keel and the waterline of the vessel
EAST-WEST AXIS: west German Canals, Mittelland Canal, Berlin, Eastern Germany, Poland
ECB: European Central Bank
ECDB: European Crew Database
EFIP: European Federation of Inland Ports
EfW: Energy from waste
EQUIVALENT FLOW : equivalent flow values (indicated in the unit m3/s) measured against the benchmark levels are recalculated every ten years as flows within a 100-year time series. The equivalent flow values are then used to recalculate the corresponding equivalent water level (EWL) values against the benchmark levels every ten years.
EQUIVALENT WATER LEVEL (EWL): refers to the water level occurring along the Rhine at an equivalent low water flow falling below the long-term average for 20 days per year.
ESTUARY TRANSPORT: in Belgium, transport performed by estuary vessels, specific inland vessels that can also be used for non-international sea voyages. These inland vessels are allowed by a Royal Decree to operate in coastal areas between the Belgian coastal ports and the Belgian inland waterway network via the Schelde estuary provided they comply with certain requirements.
ETF: European Transport Workers’ Federation
EU: European Union
EU DIRECTIVE 2016/1629: a European directive laying down technical requirements for inland vessels
EU ENERGY & CLIMATE PACKAGE (ECP) of 2009: established a framework for EU member countries to set national renewable energy targets, leading to the enactment of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED, 2009/29/EC).
EU-REGULATION 2020/473: defines the standards laying down the characteristics and conditions of use of the databases relating to Union certificates of qualification, service books and logbooks issued in accordance with Directive (EU) 2017/2397.
EUROPE: European inland navigation in this report includes five countries that are not members of the European Union – United Kingdom, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Switzerland and Ukraine.
EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF THE MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT CLASS I-VII (CEMT CLASS I-VII): the Classification of European Inland Waterways is a set of standards for interoperability of large navigable waterways forming part of the Trans-European Inland Waterway network within Continental Europe and Russia. It was created by the European Conference of Ministers of Transport in 1992, hence the range of dimensions are also referred to as CEMT Class I–VII.
EUROPEAN CRUISE FLEET: cruise vessels with more than 39 beds operating in the EU and in Switzerland.
EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL (EGD): a set of policy initiatives by the European Commission with the overarching aim of making the European Union (EU) climate neutral in 2050. An impact assessed plan will also be presented to increase the EU’s greenhouse gas emission reductions target for 2030 to at least 50% and towards 55% compared with 1990 levels. The plan is to review each existing law on its climate merits, and also to introduce new legislation on the circular economy, building renovation, biodiversity, farming and innovation.
EUROPEAN TRADING HUB: a dynamic market area for gas trading in the heart of Europe.
EUROSTAT SBS: EUROSTAT Structural Business Statistics
FAIRWAY DUES: applied by a few countries, these fees were implemented for calling ships and depend on the size of the ship and the weight of the cargo carried.
FAIRWAY REHABILITATION AND MAINTENANCE MASTER PLAN (FRMMP): this highlights national needs and short-term measures in order to ensure the efficient and effective realisation of harmonised waterway infrastructure parameters along the entire Danube and its navigable tributaries.
FARAG REGION: Flushing, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Ghent
FIT FOR 55 PACKAGE: a package of legislative measures that will support Europe’s climate policy framework and put the EU on track for a 55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, and net-zero emissions by 2050. The interconnected proposals cover areas of climate, land use, energy, transport and taxation, to bring them into line with the targets agreed in the European Climate Law.
FREIGHT RATE: price at which a cargo is delivered from one point to another.
FRIENDSHORING: refers to the observed trend for countries to favour trade with, and to locate economic activities, in countries that share the same political standards. The term was coined by US Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen during a press conference held on April 13th 2022, and has since been re-used in academic writing and in reports by several organisations, including the IMF.
FTE: full-time equivalents. One FTE corresponds to the workload of one person with a standard full-time contract. As an example, two persons working 20 hours per week each correspond to one FTE if a standard full-time contract comprises 40 hours per week.
GDP: Gross Domestic Product (basic measure of the overall size of a country’s economy)
GOOD NAVIGATION STATUS (GNS): the state of the inland navigation transport network, which enables efficient, reliable and safe navigation for users by ensuring minimum waterway parameter values and levels of service.
GOS: Gross Operating Surplus, abbreviated as GOS, is gross output of an industry less the cost of intermediate goods and services (to give gross value added), and less compensation of employees and taxes and subsidies on production and imports.
HEADLINE INFLATION: general increase in the consumer price of goods and services, including those that are often more volatile, such as energy and food prices.
HOARDING: in economics, it refers to the concept of purchasing and storing a large amount of products belonging to a particular market, often creating scarcity of that product, and ultimately driving up the price of that product.
HYDROTREATED VEGETABLE OILS (HVO): biofuels made by hydrocracking or hydrogenation of vegetable oil. Hydrocracking breaks big molecules into smaller ones using hydrogen while hydrogenation adds hydrogen to molecules. These methods can be used to create substitutes for gasoline, diesel, propane, kerosene and other chemical feedstock. Diesel fuel produced from these sources is known as green diesel or renewable diesel.
ILUC: this stands for indirect land use change, i.e. ‘[…] the extension of agriculture land into non-cropland, possibly including areas with high carbon stock such as forests, wetlands and peatlands’ (RED II).
INDUSTRIAL TRAFFIC: refers to the traffic that exists directly between the industries located in the port area (such as BASF, AIR LIQUIDE, EUROCHEM…) and the hinterland.
INLAND FREIGHT TRANSPORT MODES: these include road, rail and inland waterways
INLAND WATERWAY BOUNDARY: in the UK, a boundary defined as the most seaward point of any estuary which might reasonably be bridged or tunnelled and this is taken to be where the width of water surface area is both less than 3 km at low water and less than 5 km at high water on spring tides.
INLAND WATERWAY TRANSIT TRANSPORT: inland waterway transport through a country between two places (a place of loading/embarkation and a place of unloading/disembarkation) both located in another country or in other countries provided that the total journey within the country is by inland waterways and that there is no loading/embarkation and unloading/ disembarkation operation in the transit country. IWT vessels loaded/unloaded at the frontier of that country onto/from another mode of transport are included.
INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT FORUM (ITF): an intergovernmental organisation within the OECD system
IPCEI: Important Project of Common European Interest
IRON GATES: these set the border between the downstream free-flowing part of the Danube and the upstream part which counts many locks. They are located at the Serbian – Romanian border.
IWT: inland waterways transport
IWW: inland waterways
LAKE-SEA SHIPPING: in Sweden and Finland river-sea transport is referred to as lake-sea shipping as this type of transport mainly takes place between lakes (Saimaa, Vänern, Mälaren), representing the inland component, and the Sea (Baltic and North Sea).
LNG: liquified natural gas
LOADING DEGREE: percentage of maximum vessel loading capacity
LOHC: liquid organic hydrogen carrier
LOWER DANUBE: stretch of the Danube from the Iron Gates on the border between Serbia and Romania to Sulina on the Black Sea in Romania
LOW NAVIGABLE WATER LEVEL (LNWL): refers to a low water level on the Danube under which the water levels do not fall below more than 22 ice free days per year.
LOWER RHINE: section of the Rhine which flows from Bonn, Germany, to the North Sea at Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands.
MARITIME DANUBE: downstream of the port of Braila, the Danube is often called the maritime Danube, due to its river-sea character.
MEDIAN: a statistical indicator, which should not be confounded with the arithmetic average of a series. The median of a data series, in this case of a wage series, is the value which divides the data series (sorted by size) into two equal halves. 50% of the wages are therefore higher than the median wage, and 50% are lower than the median wage. Compared to the arithmetic average, the median is less influenced by extremely high or extremely low wages. It therefore gives a more realistic picture of the ‘typical’ wage level.
MIDDLE DANUBE: stretch of the Danube from Devín Gate on the border between Austria and Slovakia to the Iron Gates
MIDDLE RHINE: stretch of the Rhine between Bingen am Rhein and Bonn
MINIMUM NAVIGATION CHANNEL DEPTH: this corresponds to the minimum depth that should prevail in the fairway area (depth of the fairway box below the equivalent water level). This minimum depth is related to the equivalent water level, as it is the channel depth that should still be present, even if water levels drop to the level of the equivalent water level.
MIO: million
MMBtu: Million British thermal unit
MODAL SPLIT INDICATOR: the percentage of inland waterway transport in total inland freight transport performance (road, rail, IWT) measured in tonne-kilometres.
MODAL SPLIT SHARE: the percentage of inland waterway freight transport performance (in tkm) within total land-based transport performance. Land-based freight transport modes include road, rail and inland waterways.
NACE: Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community
NET TURNOVER (this definition applies only to the turnover data in the Netherlands in the report, the source of which is the CBS statistical office): Business returns, excluding VAT (value added taxes) from the selling of goods and services to customers. Turnover is calculated after deduction of discounts, bonuses, returnable deposits and on-charged freight costs.
NEW MARKET (in inland navigation): a branch where inland navigation transport solutions are either not yet present or in an early stage of development and could be considered in the coming years as a suitable transport solution.
NEW REGULATIONS FOR RHINE NAVIGATION PERSONNEL (RPN) ON 8 NOVEMBER 2022: entry into force on the Rhine of modern regulations governing professional qualifications and crews aboard inland navigation vessels, from Basel to the open sea.
NORTHERN RANGE: designates the concentration of European maritime ports located along the North Sea, most of which are among the most active in the world. These Northern Sea ports mainly refer to Antwerp, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Zeebrugge, Hamburg, and Bremen/Bremerhaven. Together, they give an indication of economic development in the northern Eurozone and Germany.
NORTH SEA PORT: the name of the port formed by the cross-border merger between Zeeland Seaports (Flushing, Borsele and Terneuzen) in the Netherlands and Ghent Port Company in Belgium.
NPRC: Dutch inland navigation corporation which assembles 120 IWT entrepreneurs and has a fleet of 200 vessels.
OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OPEC: Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
OPTTI: Operational Programme Transport and Transport Infrastructure
POSTED WORKER: according to Directive 2018/957 (the Posted Workers Directive), a posted worker is a worker who, for a limited period, carries out his/her work in the territory of a Member State other than the State in which he/she normally works.
PP: percentage point (unit for the difference of two percentages. For example, moving up from 40% to 44% is a 4 percentage point increase, but is a 10 percent increase in what is being measured)
REAL GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (Real GDP): an inflation-adjusted measure that reflects the value of all goods and services produced by an economy in a given year (expressed in base-year prices).
RECYCLING CENTRES: refer to the place where waste is recycled.
RED SEA CRISIS: the incident of 19 October 2023 when the Houthi movement in Yemen started attacking merchant vessels in the Red Sea and caused hundreds of ships to alter their course and sail through the Cape of Good Hope to avoid attacks. This led to a significant drop in international container transport at the end of the year 2023.
RHINE COUNTRIES: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland
RHINE PATENT: Rhine certification of qualification as a boatmaster
RHINE TRANSPORT DATA (DESTATIS): the calculation is based on information provided by the skippers to the ports. On arrival in a port, the skipper informs the port, which forwards the information to the relevant regional statistical office, which in turn forwards it to the central headquarters of the German Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. As far as the distance travelled is concerned, the port of origin and the port of destination for all transported goods are taken into account. In order to be able to specify the distance covered, the skippers have the possibility of indicating marked points or landmarks that they have passed on their journey. If one or more such landmarks are specified, Destatis determines the shortest route that takes these marked points into account. If no landmarks are specified, the shortest route in terms of kilometres is assumed.
’RIVER’ DANUBE: upstream of the port of Braila, Danube traffic is classical river traffic
RIVER-SEA SHIP: a seagoing ship adapted to navigate both at sea and on certain stretches of inland waterways.
RIVER-SEA TRANSPORT: according to the Eurostat Reference Manual of Inland Waterways Transport Statistics a transport operation partly by inland waterways (IWW) and partly by sea, without transhipment. It can be operated by inland vessels or seagoing ships. Any inland vessel undertaking such transport will need to have the appropriate authorisation permitting it to operate at sea.
RPN regulation: regulation relating to the Personnel Navigating on the Rhine (“Règlement relatif au Personnel de la Navigation sur le Rhin”)
RUHR AREA: a dense urban area in western Germany and the largest industrial area in western Europe.
SAIMAA CANAL: a Finnish navigable canal connecting the Saimaa lake system near the city of Lappeenranta to the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic sea near the city of Vyborg.
SECURED INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT (IN INLAND WATERWAYS): the amount received/spent
SMALL VESSELS: vessels with a loading capacity of up to 1,500 tonnes. According to an alternative definition, small vessels have a loading capacity of 650 tonnes or less.
SHORT-SEA TRAFFIC: trips made by seagoing ships between European seaports.
SOLIDARITY LANES: in the context of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the European Commission set out an action plan to establish ‘Solidarity Lanes’ to ensure Ukraine can export grain, but also import the goods it needs, from humanitarian aid to animal feed and fertilisers.
SQUAT EFFECT: a hydrodynamic effect that is related to the velocity of the water flow under the vessel. The shallower the waterflow under a vessel, the higher is its flow velocity, and the higher is its dynamic pressure. Due to the Bernoulli principle, total pressure is a constant which implies that a higher dynamic pressure implies a lower static pressure. This lower static pressure leads to a lower resistance of the water towards the vessel and implies therefore a further sinking of the vessel into the water, thereby increasing the vessel’s actual draught.
STEEL DEMAND PER CAPITA: steel production plus imports minus exports, per capita
SULINA CANAL: Romanian waterway with river-sea traffic linking the Black Sea with the river-sea port of Tulcea.
SÖDERTÄLJE CANAL: Swedish waterway connecting the lake Mälaren at the city of Södertälje to the Baltic Sea
SQUAT EFFECT: a hydrodynamic effect that is related to the velocity of the water flow under the vessel. The shallower the waterflow under a vessel, the higher is its flow velocity, and the higher is its dynamic pressure. Due to the Bernoulli principle, total pressure is a constant which implies that a higher dynamic pressure implies a lower static pressure. This lower static pressure leads to a lower resistance of the water towards the vessel and implies therefore a further sinking of the vessel into the water, thereby increasing the vessel’s actual draught.
SYCTOM: a public service company which provides a public service for the treatment and collection of household waste for 85 municipalities in the Paris region in France.
TEU: Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit, is a unit of cargo capacity for container transport. It is based on the volume of a 20-foot-long (6.1 m) intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box which can be easily transferred between different modes of transport, such as ships, trains, and trucks.
THE EUROPEAN BARGE INSPECTION SCHEME (EBIS): scheme developed by oil and chemical companies as part of their commitment to improving the safety of tanker barging operations.
THE EUROPEAN CRUISE FLEET: cruise vessels with more than 39 beds which operate in the EU and in Switzerland.
THE INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANISATION (IMO): the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine and atmospheric pollution by ships.
THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON LOAD LINES (LL): an international convention whose provisions were made for determining the freeboard of ships.
THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE PREVENTION OF MARINE POLLUTION FROM SHIPS (MARPOL): the main international convention covering prevention of pollution of the marine environment by ships from operational or accidental causes.
THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA (SOLAS): an international maritime treaty which sets minimum safety standards in the construction, equipment and operation of merchant ships.
THE SMOOTH WATERLINE: in the UK, this is a boundary within estuaries, where all transport that remains completely within this Smooth Waterline is counted as pure (internal) inland waterway traffic.
TKM: Tonne-Kilometre (unit for transport performance which represents volume of goods transported multiplied by transport distance)
TRADITIONAL RHINE: section of the Rhine from Basel to the border between the Netherlands and Germany
TROLLHÄTTE CANAL: a Swedish waterway connecting the lake Vänern to the Kattegat (Baltic) Sea.
TURNOVER (EUROSTAT DEFINITION): it comprises the totals invoiced by the observation unit during the reference period, and this corresponds to market sales of goods or services supplied to third parties; it includes all duties and taxes on the goods or services invoiced by the unit with the exception of the VAT invoiced by the unit to its customer and other similar deductible taxes directly linked to turnover. It also includes all other charges (transport, packaging, etc.) passed on to the customer. Price reductions, rebates and discounts as well as the value of returned packing must be deducted.
UNDER-KEEL CLEARANCE: the distance between the lowest point on the ship’s keel (or hull) and the highest point on the channel bottom beneath the ship. This is so to say the ‘security margin’ under the keel.
UPPER DANUBE: section of the navigable Danube from Kelheim, Germany, to Devín Gate, on the border between Austria and Slovakia
UPPER RHINE: section of the navigable Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basel in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany
URBAN LOGISTICS: according to Interreg Europe, urban logistics is a wide field, comprising both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) interactions, and involving a very large number of stakeholders and economic operators. It is essential for the operation of modern cities, delivering post and parcels, taking stock to retailers, collecting waste and refuse, transporting construction materials and machinery, and connecting value chains.
VERTICAL INTEGRATION (IN LOGISTICS AND IN PARTICULAR IN INLAND NAVIGATION): in general, it means that an IWT company does not only transport goods from point A to point B, and therefore has an influence on the backward and forward parts of the logistics chain. Backward vertical integration is present if an inland waterway transport company also owns the freight forwarding process which is quite often done by other (larger) logistics firms. Forward vertical integration would mean that inland navigation companies would also control the selling and marketing of the products that they are transporting.
WATERSIDE GOODS TRAFFIC: loading or unloading activity in ports, which includes inland vessels.
WATERSIDE PORTS TRAFFIC: the volume of transhipment, measured in tonnes, of the following transhipment activities: transhipment ‘vessel – vessel’, ‘vessel – road vehicle’, ‘vessel – freight wagon’, ‘vessel – quay’.