Objective: This study investigates the implementation of the waterborne platooning transport concept in two of the largest European inland navigation corridors, the Rhine and the Danube region. Each region has different geo-economic and environmental features. These features are compared, and their effects on implementing a waterborne platooning transport concept are studied. The waterborne platooning concept, referred to as the Vessel Train, aims to reduce crew cost by automating the navigation tasks and moving the navigational responsibility to the leading vessel of the platoon, which is fully manned. Methods: The implementation of the Vessel Train is assessed by making use of a developed model, which allows the assessment of the concept's viability by comparing the annual cost per transported ton of a reference vessel that sails individually to a vessel that sails as a part of a VT on the same route. Results: The results conclude that the application of waterborne platooning on the Rhine is more promising than on the Danube. The low wages hamper the implementation of the concept on the Danube in the region, the low traffic density on the waterway, and the common use of large push tows instead of self-propelled vessels. Implications for research: As determined in the analysis for the Rhine case, a reduction in transport cost would make waterborne transport more attractive. However, other factors, such as the further integration of the VT in the overall supply chain, play a role in the successful implementation of this IWT transport concept. Applying the VT concept in the Danube case requires more potential cargo flows, which can be obtained by adding push convoys into the vessel train. This way of transport is more numerous on the Danube than self-propelled vessels. Both of these aspects should be studied further.

To achieve a modal shift towards waterborne transport and to deal with the shortage of crewmembers, a platooning concept called the “Vessel Train” is explored for the inland navigation sector. A Vessel Train consists of a lead and various follower vessels. The lead vessel is fully manned and takes over the navigational and situational awareness responsibilities for the follower vessels. This leading action benefits the followers through increasing the vessels’ productivity and enabling crew cost savings. This article investigates the viability of the concept for the lower Rhine region, by presenting a cost model that compares the Vessel Train conditions to the current sailing conditions. This model is used to assess a case study where lead vessels operate on a liner service between Antwerp and Duisburg. Economically viable cases for the concepts’ early-stage application and fully matured implementation are identified, and boundary conditions are presented. The viable conditions vary depending on the vessel type and the operating regime of the reference vessel. A fully matured VT implementation requires a minimum of 26 participants, whereas an early-stage implementation requires 40 participants. The early-stage implementation additionally includes a minimum distance of 200 km to be spent sailing in the VT and the distance sailed in the VT has to amount to a minimum of 50% of the entire trip.

The potential to implement the concept of waterborne platooning in the European short sea transportation system is currently being explored. In the concept, a platoon is referred to as a “Vessel Train” (VT). A VT is composed of a fully manned lead vessel and a number of follower vessels. The lead vessel takes over the navigational and situational awareness responsibilities for the follower vessels (FVs). This enables automation of the navigational tasks on these follower vessels, which in turn leads to a potential reduction in crew size and associated cost. This paper describes the economic viability of the VT concept. It is applied to a short sea case study in which a fully matured system and an early implementation stage are mimicked. The assessment shows that viability is strongly influenced by the number of crew members removed from the FVs and the departure intervals of consecutive trains. It concludes that while economically viable cases can indeed be identified, the benefits created by this VT implementation are present but not very large. This is making it questionable if a successful application of the concept can be achieved given the risk and uncertainty surrounding the individual parameters.