Europe Cars & Trucks News

A group of MPs today urged for the government to contemplate the introduction of financial incentives to encourage businesses to adopt methods of freight transportation that are reliant on water, as opposed to rail or road. The group, which together forms the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, has issued a report in which it highlights how a mere 1 per cent of freight is presently carried along the UK’s rivers and canals. This is despite the hugely reduced rate of carbon dioxide emission that the waterways offer over road haulage - equating to a drop of 80 per cent.

The report draws attention to a pledge made seven years ago by British Waterways, in which it promised that the amount of freight transported on water would be doubled within 10 years (taking it to 2010). However, in 2005, five years after the statement, a slump was instead noticed, of 900,000 tonnes. In response, the agency highlighted the uneconomic nature of over-water transportation, and suggested that adoption of it now would likely generate additional costs within the industry.

Now, this new report actively seeks involvement at government level to explore the potential for freight transportation using rivers, and suggests implementation of a ‘carbon credit scheme’ as an incentive. This last feature of the report is covered in the report thus: "If the government is serious about transferring more freight on to the waterways, companies themselves require further financial incentives to make this move,"

One company featured within the report is Sainsbury’s, which has recently been conducting assessments of the validity of water-based freight operations. In the trials, the River Thames was used as a channel between delivery sites and stores. For the future, the report states, the supermarket leviathan plans to use this method to carry up to 7,000 tonnes of materials involved in the construction of sites for the London Olympic Games in 2012.

While Freight features prominently, the main thrust of the report is a more general stress on the need to both preserve and upgrade canals and rivers across the UK. In these general terms, David Drew MP, the EFRA British Waterways Sub-Committee’s Chairman, provides comment on the report. He states: "…we have seen a recent renaissance in our waterways but this is now clearly under threat because of immediate funding issues and also a lack of clarity in the strategy that BW are pursuing not helped by the apparent break down in relationships with Government. Putting this right is an absolute necessity."

Source - Freight International Newsdesk

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