European short-sea shipping experiment fails

Short-sea shipping proved
to be a step too far for the
European logistics sector
which has had to find other
ways of moving cargo more
efficiently from origin to end
user.
According to Gert-Jan
Nieuwenhuizen, director
international projects with
the Port of Amsterdam, the
idea of short-sea shipping –
known more widely as the
Marco Polo project – was
a major project from the
European Union White Paper
on addressing the faster
movement of cargo.
“The belief was that shortsea
shipping would be the
answer but the logistics sector
is extremely conservative by
its very nature and not eager
to change or adopt innovative
solutions.”
The goal of short-sea
shipping is to cut down on
road infrastructure costs
and congestion at ports and
increase cargo flows on sea
rather than road. But it was
a modal shift too complex for
shippers, he said.
“Cargo owners were
comfortable with calling on
their trucking companies to
move their cargo from Spain
to Portugal. Asking them to
suddenly put all that cargo
back on vessels was not
realistic as they found short
sea shipping too complex and
ultimately it led to the failure
of the concept.”