Digitalisation

Future River Information Services

Digitalisation is not an aim in itself. It is a powerful tool to help achieve more efficiency, safety, resilience and sustainability. Since the adoption of the River Information Services (RIS) directive at the beginning of this century, much has changed. RIS COMEX, the EU funded cooperation project bringing together 14 inland waterway authorities from 13 countries, has yielded two operational spin offs. With EuRIS, all RIS data and services are available in one European data sharing environment. With CEERIS in the Danube area, electronic reporting focusing on ship, voyage and cargo has become a reality. The COMEX² consortium is ensuring the follow-up.

Meanwhile, the EU is close to adopt an updated RIS directive to ensure the legal framework is future proof. An evolving EU RIS Environment allows public authorities to improve waterway management and logistics players to optimise transport operations. The updated legislation can help improve the efficiency of inland waterway transport across borders and establish stronger links with other modes of transport to help achieve sustainable, smart and congestion-free transport and logistics.

Digitalisation pathway

2015-2020: Inland Navigation Corridor Management & Inland Port Information Systems
2020-2030: Synchromodal Transport Management
2030-2040: Physical Internet
2040-2050: Zero-emission Synchro-modal Transport

Electronic freight transport information

The eFTI regulation of 2020 requires EU Member States to be able to accept electronic freight transport information (eFTI) in a EU harmonised machine-readable format by mid-2025. The economic operators can continue sending transport information on paper, but if they choose to share this information with authorities in an electronic format, they must use so-called certified eFTI platforms or certify their own transport management system (TMS). The secure and harmonised regulation and data sharing of cargo information enables logistics operators to enrich the transport information with vessel positioning, track and trace and a reliable estimated time of arrival to actor of the supply chain.

The European Commission is in the process of defining the details of the data structure, the business process, the IT technology architecture and eFTI certification process It is imperative to establish feasible rules, aligned and interoperable with the daily multimodal business-environment. The COMEX² consortium is actively working on the integration of eFTI and RIS for inland waterway transport.

Smart shipping

Ships sailing while 100% on remote control from shore are already a reality in inland shipping thanks to the first test areas which function as regulatory sandboxes. Authorities are working on proactive traffic management and automating bridge and lock operations. Physical objects are being mirrored by digital twins by capturing data from different digital ecosystems by means of artificial intelligence clearing the way for Better informed decision making and progressive automation. Smart Shipping is the entire cluster of automated vessels and infrastructure, smart data and smart administration. It aims to help support safer and better operations, preventive maintenance and better capacity management across borders, with the aim to make inland waterway transport easier-to-use.

Smart Shipping also enables to deal with shortage of staff without compromising safety and makes inland waterways attractive to newcomers, opening new jobs and markets in research and operations. The development of Smart Shipping requires cybersecure high-speed broadband coverage across borders and an EU legal framework beyond River Information Services to ensure interoperable deployment across borders and in conjunction with other transport modes

Automation should be fully part of a EU holistic vision for smart shipping, including physical and digital infrastructure, which underpins ongoing initiatives and is embedded in a multimodal strategy accompanied by a clear implementation strategy and roadmap with concrete objectives, actions and measurable performance indicators. The DINA expert group has outlined a start vision. This must now be elaborated and implemented by 2035.

Priorities for INE

Convergence between transport and digital initiatives and seamless alignment of mode-specific digital initiatives such as EURIS, which can become one of the cornerstones of the EU Data Mobility Space, providing interoperability between different data sharing ecosystems;
EU digital initiatives and solutions should reflect the needs of public and private stakeholders so that they can be effectively applied and used to avoid stranded assets;
The assistance of Member State administrations at the regulatory, process and IT technology level for the implementation of digital initiatives and enhance cooperation;
The support of ongoing digitalisation and automation initiatives with a EU holistic vision and adequate research and development activities in particular in the area of smart infrastructure and regulation.
With regard to Smart Shipping, INE advocates the creation of an EU innovation-proof regulatory framework through a regulatory sandbox to accelerate and boost innovation in inland navigation, a sector dependent on automation to address the growing labour shortage. It is important to move from authorising individual exemptions to an enabling framework and to use the lessons learnt from the existing test environments for automated navigation.