ALSO DANUBE - Advanced Logistic Solutions for Danube Waterway
Overview
Background & policy context:
Inland waterway transport still does not exploit its full potential as strategic, future oriented transport mode focussing to medium and long distances. In order to promote the given strategic advantages in terms of loading capacity, security, low cost to maintain necessary infrastructure and positive ecological factors, the quality factors of inland waterway transport have to be increased to highest standards in terms of planning, management and monitoring, intermodality, flexibility, reliability and time.
Especially along the Danube transport corridor (Corridor VII), inland waterway transport has to be seen as a strategic key mode for freight transport between highly industrialised European countries. Due to the increasing importance of this corridor for trade between the European Union and the new and future Member States in Central and Eastern Europe, the enormous growth of freight flows in the recent years and the related adverse effects caused especially by road traffic make it necessary to stimulate sustainable transport alternatives on the Danube waterway.
Objectives:
The overall objective of ALSO DANUBE was to increase significantly the use of inland waterway as a key mode within intermodal door-to-door transport chains focusing on the Danube axis. Therefore, ALSO DANUBE aimed to:
• develop and implement an advanced European concept to manage intermodal transport chains with inland navigation as core transport mode
• set up and run highly integrated logistic networks and operational platforms to enlarge the current range of logistic services
• integrate advanced traffic and transport management systems
• introduce new systems and technologies in the area of data exchange and communication
• create independent logistic information and communication services
• stimulate the extension of waterway transport relations to port hinterland and combined cargo
• improve the efficiency of Danube transport which shall contribute to the development of the Danube waterway as a backbone for European transport, promoting the sustainable integration of the accession countries into the European Union
Methodology:
ALSO DANUBE aims to promote the use of inland navigation as a key mode of intermodal door-to-door transport chains. Innovations, solutions and technologies for planning and managing integrated logistic chains, developed under FP4 and national RTD-projects, will be applied and refined by 27 partners representing industry, research, transport, and government from five EU and three accession countries. An open virtual network, based on a broad European approach, links actors and interconnects existing systems via a common source logistics database interactively related to traffic management systems.
Web-based client applications, advanced EDI solutions, and innovative telematic technologies will be integrated, demonstrated, and evaluated in four supply chains representing different transport markets. This technical approach and operational concept especially addresses the needs of SMEs and operators from Eastern Europe, creating added value logistic services with superior transport quality. This will increase the quality and competitiveness of inland waterway transport, leading to clear commercial benefits for all actors. These benefits will be evaluated jointly with macro-economic impacts like reduced traffic emissions, improved road safety, regional effects, labour, etc.
The general concept and the chosen approach are based on the following aspects:
- Development of a strategic concept with a European dimension and generic systems based on established requirements comprehending the relevant results of linked national and international RTD projects and cutting edge technologies;
- Development of operational concepts for intermodal operational platforms and co-operative networks;
- Establishment and demonstration of a 'Common Source Logistics Information and Communication Service Provider' with the objective of increasing availability, handling, and distribution performance of relevant logistic planning and management data, especially in order to implement EDI-based data and information management (Logistic Chain Information Management) between all involved partners, including SMEs and actors from CEEC who are not able to set up and maintain the respective IT & communication infrastructure by themselves;
- Creation of interactive links and relations between task-oriented logistic data (e.g. supply orders), operational transport data, and actual inland waterway traffic management
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