Container Barging for a greener planet

Basics

Transporting goods via river container barges is one of the most environmentally-friendly ways of shipping products from point A to point B.

This is because river container barges consume less energy than any other shipping method aside from rail transport. Furthermore, barges cause practically no noise pollution, and in contrast to building new highways, expanding canals for barge service requires no additional land.

While bulk commodities, such as coal, iron ore and gravel, can be loaded directly onto barges, most shipments require some kind of additional truck transport.
Overseas containers function as truck chassis which can be loaded or unloaded like conventional trucks at the loading terminals. The most expensive and environmentally harmful aspect of transport involves driving these trucks from the loading terminals to the seaport.

And this is where our "Container Barging for a Greener Planet" comes in. We offer you environmentally friendly, multimodal transport between the seaports and your loading terminals. We use trucks only when absolutely necessary for transport routes between the place of dispatch or destination and the nearest inland terminal.
For most of the transport route, we use modern, environmentally-friendly container freight barges on the Rhine and Schelde Rivers, or container trains operated by our mother company Inter Ferry Boats.

This is our contribution toward reducing CO2 emissions. In the beginning of 2012, every quotation and bill that you receive from us will include precise data on the carbon fingerprint of your multimodal transport in kilograms. To help you put these values in perspective, we will also compare them with direct truck transport and your corresponding savings in percent.

Emissions factor

The following methods are widely used for calculating emissions caused by freight transport:

Methods:
  • "Tank-to-Wheel" (direct consumption of energy not including energy production)
    This calculation only takes the CO2 emissions into account that directly result from transporting the goods by truck, rail or ship.
  • "Well-to-Wheel" (indirect & direct energy consumption including energy production)
    In addition to transporting goods by truck, rail or ship, this calculation also takes the emissions caused by energy production (i.e. fuel production) into account. This includes all emissions related to the production and distribution of the fuel, e.g. the extraction at the well site, its transportation to the refinery and shipment to the gas station.
Types of emissions:
  • Without equivalents:
    Evaluation of 2 emissions only
  • With equivalents:
    Along with CO2, other greenhouse gases are emitted during the transportation process. These emissions can also be calculated in terms of CO2 emissions, which of course result in a higher emissions factor.
In accordance with the first draft of the CEN Norm (DIN EN 16258:2011) the "Well-to-Wheel" method with equivalents serves as the basis for our CO2 fingerprint calculations. Consequently, we at H&S Container Line also employ this method and use the value 2,9 kg CO2 e / l as our emissions factor (valid for gasoil and diesel).

Energy consumption

Truck (pick-up / short-distance transport between loading/unloading point and shipping terminal)
  • Vehicle: tractor-trailer up to 400 PS / 40 t max. permitted weight/ 25 t max. payload
  • Class Euro 5
  • Energy consumption: loaded = 31,7 l / 100 km
  • Energy consumption: empty = 21,5 l / 100 km
  • For each trip, we calculate one way with an empty container and return trip with a full container (and vice versa for imports). Distances are calculated using the current version of map&guide.
  • Source: Verkehrsrundschau 2010, issue 51/52
Truck (Direct transport / long-distance shipping)
  • " Vehicle: tractor-trailer 460-480 PS / 40 t max. permitted weight / 25 t max. payload
  • Class Euro 5
  • Energy consumption: loaded = 31,5 l / 100 km
  • Energy consumption: empty = 21,3 l / 100 km
  • The following is used as the basis for comparing the energy consumption of direct truck transport: Pick-up of empty container at the inland terminal - trip to the loading point - trip with full container to seaport (and vice-versa for imports). An additional distance of 20 % is added to the empty container transport since one can assume that the truck will have to drive to a new location for reloading. Distances are calculated using the current version of map&guide.
  • Source: Verkehrsrundschau 2010, issue 51/52
Inland barge / HSCL container freighter
  • Our calculations are based on the real average fuel consumption of our fleet of inland river barges in 2010.
  • This value equals the total fuel consumption in relation to the transported tonnage and distance covered in 2010.
  • This method allows us to offset differences in fuel consumption as a result of varying load weights and up- and down-river transport routes.
  • Distances are calculated in river kilometers as listed in WESKA
  • Energy consumption = 0,0074 l / tkm
  • Source: HSCL

Additional estimates

Container weights:
  • 20' = 2.3 t
  • 40' = 4.0 t
Precision of the calculation:
  • The price quotation assumes a standard weight of 16 t per container.
  • On your bill, prices are calculated using the actual weight of the containers.
In accordance with the CEN Norm, energy consumption caused by handling and storage ist not taken into account.
Transport of a 20’ Container (single trip) from Basel to Antwerp with a local trucking of 30 km
Pick-up Barge Truck Total Savings
Multimodal
[kgCO2]		 44,72
(30 km km empty + full)		 354,23
(900 km km full)		 398,95 44%
Direct-Truck
[kgCO2]		 19,35
(30 km km empty)		 691,13
(720 km full)		 710,48


Transport of a 20’ Container (single trip) from Duisburg to Antwerp with a local trucking of 20 km
Pick-up Barge Truck Total Savings
Multimodal
[kgCO2]		 29,81
(20 km empty + full)		 113,89
(290 km full)		 143,70 43%
Direct-Truck
[kgCO2]		 12,90
(20 km km empty)		 239,45
(250 km full)		 252,35