The Modal Shift programme (organised by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Top Sector Logistics and the provinces of South Holland, North Brabant, Limburg and Gelderland) is dedicated to relocating container transport from the roads to inland navigation. The goal is to bring about a large-scale move - particularly among SME shipping and transport companies - away from container transport by truck and towards transport via inland navigation.
What?
For the period 2020-2024, the goal is to “shift” 2,000 TEU per day from the road to inland navigation along the Rotterdam-Venlo and Rotterdam-Arnhem/Nijmegen corridors. In concrete terms, this means 1,000 trailer trucks (most of which carry two containers) per day off the road and 1,000 more containers that are transported via inland navigation. This will lead to fewer traffic jams and lower CO2 emission levels. If the programme is successful, a similar programme can be introduced for railway transport.
Fries Express
A great example of Modal Shift is the “Fries Express,” a recent collaboration between potato fries producer McCain and logistics service provider Kloosterboer.
In the past, 4,500 truck rides were conducted every year from McCain's production site in Lewedorp to Kloosterboer's distribution centre in Lelystad and another 2,500 rides from Rotterdam to Lelystad to load containers. In this new situation, McCain can deliver the full containers directly to Kloosterboer Vlissingen for barge transport to Lelystad. From Lelystad, the full export containers are transported by barge to Rotterdam. Furthermore, export containers from local producers of onion/potato products are transported from Lelystad to Vlissingen by barge for further transport to West Africa.
For this service, two barges are used that have been equipped with reefer plugs to keep the containers refrigerated during transport. The following parties are involved in this project: Kloosterboer, McCain, producers of onion and potato products, container shipping companies (MSC, CMA-CGM, Maersk, Hapag Lloyd), Honkoop Barging (barge shipping company), terminal Alblasserdam (BCTN), terminal Flevokust (CTU), road authority RWS and the provinces of Zeeland, South Holland and Flevoland.
Video is in Dutch
Secretary Van Nieuwenhuizen paid a digital work visit to Kloosterboer today. "The “fries express” shows that it is perfectly possible to transport goods via inland navigation, instead of by truck. It is a great example of the new form of collaboration with shipping companies and transporters with which we want to bring about a shift from road to water.”
For more information:
Merel van Beekum
Ministerie van IenW
Tel: +31 06-204 135 24
Email: merel.vanbeekum@rws.nl www.containersvanwegnaarbinnenvaart.nl