The inland waterway sector is facing a profound wave of innovation. Not only greening and emission or energy reduction are hot topics in the inland waterway transport. Digitalisation is both an opportunity and a challenge for inland shipping.

Pro Danube participated on 5 November 2018 in the workshop on digitalisation of inland waterway transport in Duisburg, Germany. Together with various stakeholders of the whole logistics chain and the public authorities, the participants of the workshop “brainstormed” about the challenges and problems for digitalisation to progress in inland waterway transport.

The progressive digitalisation requires the adaptation of existing business models and opens up new possibilities. It increases the pressure on the established players to strengthen their innovative strength and forces inland navigation to put its processes on the “digital test bench”.

The workshops participants focus on among others:

• Which of the data available in inland navigation are suitable for the construction of digital business models with regard to type and scope?
• Which ownership or usage rights of the respective data exist?
• Which target groups exist for the respective business model and which added value or benefit arises?

The workshop was part of the study “Digitalisation in Inland Navigation” being prepared by the Hamburg-based company Hanseatic Transport Consultancy (HTC) within the framework of the projects “German Center for Innovative Inland Navigation – D-ZIB” and “Mittelstand 4.0-Kompetenzzentrum Lingen” at the MARIKO in Leer.

The study will highlight the current state of affairs, the potential needs, the instruments available or to be developed, the training needs, the market potentials and conditions for digitalisation in inland waterway transport. On the basis of the gained insights the potential for the contemporary and economically meaningful and feasible production and processing of digital processes will be presented and framework conditions for the development of digital, data-driven business models will be evaluated.

The input & ideas collected in this workshop will be processed in the activity Act 4.2  Improved transport & logistics management processes of the GRENDEL project.