Statistics Netherlands

Sector Traffic and transport 

Inland waterway transport statistics provides information on the volume and performance of freight transport on EU inland waterway network. They are reported on the basis of the "territoriality principle" which means that each country reports the loading, unloading and movements of goods that take place on its national territory, irrespective of country of origins of undertakings or place of first loading and final unloading.

The full data provision obligation includes:

• annually: goods transport by type of goods, by nationality of vessels and by type of vessel as well as container transport by type of goods;
• quarterly: goods and container transport by nationality of vessels.

In addition, the legislation foresees voluntary annual data on vessel traffic. Voluntary annual data on the transport of dangerous goods and the number of accidents has been agreed with the reporting countries.

In summary, the statistics transmitted to Eurostat on inland waterway transport:

• Transport of goods (annual and quarterly mandatory data provision);
• Vessel traffic (annual voluntary data provision);
• Transport of dangerous goods (annual voluntary data provision)
• Number of accidents (annual voluntary data provision).

Country and NUTS codes

Territorial units like reporting country and regions for loading/unloading are coded according to NUTS classification for those units covered by NUTS Regulation and to ISO 3166 for the rest (e.g. territorial units outside EU). The used version of NUTS always corresponds to the version in use and no conversion to previous version is required. For instance, NUTS 2006 is used for 2008 to 2011 data, NUTS 2010 for 2012 to 2014 data, NUTS 2013 for 2015 to 2017 and NUTS 2016 for 2018 until next NUTS Regulation.

The level of detail is either NUTS0 – for reporting country – or NUTS2 (basic regions, 4 digits) – for regions. When using ISO 3166 and 4-digits level coding is required (e.g. for regions outside EU), the two-digit ISO code followed by “ZZ” is used.

Goods classification

Prior to 2007, the types of goods reported as being transported by inland waterways were those defined by NST/R (Standard Goods for Transport Statistics). In 2007 only, the type of goods has been reported according either to the NST-2000 classification or to the NST/R classification. From 2008 onwards, only the NST2007 classification is valid as set out in Commission Regulation 1304/2007 amending Regulation 1365/2006 with respect to the establishment of NST2007 as the unique classification for transported goods in certain transport modes.

Dangerous goods are classified according to the European Agreement Concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways (ADN). The classes are the following:

Class      Denomination

1             Explosive substances and articles
2             Gases
3             Flammable liquids
4.1          Flammable solids, self-reactive substances and solid desensitised explosives
4.2          Substances liable to spontaneous combustion
4.3          Substances which, in contact with water, emit flammable gases
5.1          Oxidising substances
5.2          Organic peroxides
6.1          Toxic substances
6.2          Infectious substances
7             Radioactive material
8             Corrosive substances
9             Miscellaneous dangerous substances and articles

Inland waterways transport concerns any movement of goods using inland waterways vessels, which is undertaken wholly or partially in navigable inland waterways. The movements of goods using seagoing vessels undertaken wholly in navigable inland waterways are considered as inland waterways transport.

Out of scope: the following transport activities carried out on EU inland waterways are not included in IWW transport statistics:

• the carriage of goods by vessels of less than 50 deadweight tons;
• vessels used principally for the carriage of passengers;
• vessels used for ferrying purposes;
• vessels used solely for non-commercial purposes by port administration and public authorities;
• vessels used solely for bunkering storage;
• vessels not used for the carriage of goods such as fishery vessels, floating workshops, houseboats and pleasure craft.

The definitions covering the main concepts used in this domain are included in Article 1 and Annex II to Regulation 425/2007. The main definitions are as follows:

Navigable inland waterway: A watercourse, no part of the sea, which by natural or man-made features is suitable for navigation, primarily by inland waterway vessels. This term covers navigable rivers, lakes, canals and estuaries.

Inland waterway vessel: A floating craft designed for the carriage of goods or public transport of passengers, which navigates predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.

Nationality of the vessel: The country in which the vessel is registered.

Inland waterways transport: Any movement of goods using inland waterways vessels, which is undertaken wholly or partly in navigable inland waterways.

National inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports of a national territory irrespective of the nationality of the vessel.

International inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports located in different national territories.

Transit inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport through a national territory between two ports both located in another national territory or national territories provided that in the total journey within the national territory there is no trans-shipment.

Inland movement: any movement of goods and/or passengers to and from inland ports connected by water routes which may be made navigable by one or more lock structures.

Inland waterways traffic: Any movement of a vessel on a given navigable inland waterway.

Types of vessels:

• Self-propelled barge. Any powered inland waterways freight vessel, other than self-propelled tanker barges.
• Barge not self-propelled. Any unpowered inland waterways freight vessel, other than not self-propelled tanker barges. This category includes towed, pushed and pushed-towed barges.
• Self-propelled tanker barge. A self-propelled barge intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
• Tanker barge not self-propelled. A barge not self-propelled intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
• Other goods carrying vessel. Any other known or unknown kind of inland waterways freight vessel intended for carrying goods not defined in the previous categories.
• Seagoing vessel. A vessel other than those, which navigate predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to, sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.

Containers: A freight container means an article of transport equipment:

1. of a permanent nature and accordingly strong enough to be suitable for repeated use;

2. specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods by one or more modes of transport, without intermediate reloading;

3. fitted with devices permitting its ready handling, particularly its transfer from one mode of transport to another;

4. so designed as to be easy to fill and empty;

5. having a length of 20 feet or more.

The size of containers is reported according to four categories:

1) 20 Foot ISO containers (length of 20 feet and width of 8 feet)

2) 40 Foot ISO containers (length of 40 feet and width of 8 feet)

3) ISO containers over 20 feet and under 40 feet in length

4) ISO containers over 40 feet long

Containers smaller than 20 feet are reported under Category 1.

Containers of unknown size are reported under Category 3.

Inland waterways accidents: specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event caused by, or in connection with, the operation of an inland waterways vessel resulting in an inland waterways casualty or incident which occurs at a particular time and place, without apparent cause but with marked effect.

By definition suicides are excluded, as they are a deliberate act. Because of their importance, suicide statistics should be collected separately. Terrorist and criminal acts are excluded.

Inland waterways accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods: An inland waterways accident involving a vessel carrying any of the classes of dangerous goods defined by the ADN classification

Inland waterway traffic: any movement of an IWT vessel on a given IWT network.When a vessel is being carried on another vehicle, only the movement of the carrying vehicle (active mode) is taken into account.

Inland waterway journey: any movement of an IW vessel from a specified point of origin to a specified point of destination.

 For more definitions and concepts, please consult the “Reference Manual on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics”, chapter 4.

The statistical units for inland waterways transport are the inland waterways undertakings.

All enterprises/undertakings that carry out inland waterways transport on a national territory over one year, irrespective of their country of origins or place of first loading and final unloading.

All EU Member States where the total volume of goods transported annually by inland waterways as national, international or transit transport exceeds one million tons have to transmit the requested information. Currently, 14 Member States (BE, BG, CZ, DE, FR, HR, LU, HU, NL, AT, PL, RO, SE, SK) are obliged to provide data.

Countries where there is no international or transit inland waterways transport but where the total volume of goods transported annually by inland waterways as national transport exceeds one million tons have to transmit a reduced amount of data. Thus, the United Kingdom reports only a reduced dataset – Goods transport –, all other Member States being subject to full data provision (e.g. mandatory annual and quarterly datasets).

Although not required to do so by the Regulation, three Member States (FI, IT and LT) also provide data on a voluntary basis. Furthermore 11 Member States (BE, BG, CZ, HR, LU, HU, AT, NL, PL, RO, SK) also supply voluntary data (vessel traffic, transport of dangerous goods and number of accidents) on a voluntary basis.

2007-2021

Not applicable

Data is disseminated using the following units of measure:

• 1000T: Thousands of tonnes
• MIO_TKM: Millions of tonnes/km (the transport of one tonne by inland waterways over one kilometre)
• TEU: Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (a unit of volume used in maritime transport statistics equivalent to a 20-foot ISO container )
• 1000 TEU_KM: Thousands of TEUs/Km (the transport of one twenty-foot equivalent unit over one kilometre )
• VES_MOV: Vessel movements (in number)
• >VES_KM: Thousands of vessels/Km (the number of movement of an IWT vessel over one kilometre. The distance taken into account is the distance actually run. Movements of unladed vessels are included. In a convoy, each unit is counted as a vessel)

The data are collected for the two reference periods: quarters and calendar years. Deadline for data transmission is five months after the end of each reference period.

European:

• • Regulation (EU) 2018/974 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2018 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways (codification)
  • Regulation (EU) 2016/1954  of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 amending Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways as regards the conferral of delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures
  • Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 06 September 2006 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways and repealing Council Directive 80/1119/EEC.
  • Commission Regulation (EC) No 425/2007 of 19 April 2007 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways.
  • Commission Regulation (EC) NO 1304/2007 amending Council Directive 95/64/EC, Council Regulation (EC) 1172/89, Regulations (EC) 91/2003 and (EC) 1365/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council with respect to the establishment of NST2007 as the unique classification for transported goods in certain transport modes.

Not applicable

European:

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

National:

The data collected is not confidential

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Anually and quarterly

Not applicable.

Please consult free database online or the database of Statistics Netherlands.

When requirements are met, reseachers can access microdata through a remote access connection with Statistics Netherlands.

Requirements and further information can be found here

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Methodological notes are available in the online Statistics Explained articles on Inland Waterways transport statistics and in the “Reference Manual on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics”

The definitions used for data compilation are available in Article 1 and Annex II to Commission Regulation 425/2007. Additional elements are available in the "Illustrated Glossary for Transport Statistics - 5th edition" available on-line.

Further information on inland waterways transport statistics produced by Statistics Netherlands is available here (In Dutch).

Time series checks are performed on the quarterly data, each time it is received from participating countries.

Additional quality checks are performed each time data are received from participating countries on annual data (see more details on section 18.4).

Reports are produced presenting the results of these checks. These are sent to the countries concerned. When quality issues are encountered, countries are required to investigate the problems and to send corrections or new revised datasets to Eurostat as soon as possible.

Meetings of the Working Group on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics (with participants from all reporting countries) are regularly organised in order to discuss improvements in the quality and timeliness of the statistics.

---------------------------

Statistics Netherlands performs quality checks on a monthly basis, including an extended quality check on a yearly basis. 

DG MOVE is one of the main users which needs data for policy decisions.

Contact with users is also regular via the user support service of Eurostat: this activity concerns, in addition to the previous mentioned users, other categories of users such as national administrations, enterprises, researchers, universities, citizens, journalists and so on.

User needs are constantly monitored in different ways:

• Organisation of regular working group meetings and occasional Task Force meetings, where main stakeholders are represented, including representatives from other Commission services and external organisations such "The Rhine Commission", "The Danube Commission", "The Mosel Commission", "Inland Navigation Europe" etc.

In 2013, a Task Force and a Working Group meeting were held to examine the feasibility of meeting some additional requirements, formulated by DG MOVE and the Rhine Commission. In essence, the main ones of these were for:

─ Collection of type of goods at NST 2007 2007 3-digit level instead of the current 2-digit level. This would allow better monitoring of developments for key market segments.
─ Collection of type of cargo to better understand developments in multimodality
─ Calculation of freight transport by distance classes, to allow direct comparison with other modes.

The outcome of the Working Group meeting was agreement that

─ There would be voluntary collection of type of goods at NST 2007 3-digit level, starting in reference year 2014.
─ There would be voluntary collection of type of cargo, using a simplified classification starting in reference year 2014
─ There would be a voluntary collection of Port-to-Port data via a new Table A4, starting in reference year 2014. Taken together with the ongoing development of a Europe wide Port-to-Port distance matrix, this would enable calculation of freight transport by distance classes.
─ Eurostat is regularly in contact with the Commission services (especially DG MOVE). Eurostat participates in meetings of statistical nature organised by other relevant organisations.

This indicates a positive response by Eurostat and Member States to DG MOVE’s unmet needs.

• In addition, Eurostat is regularly in contact with the Commission services (especially DG MOVE). Eurostat participates in meetings of statistical nature organised by other relevant organisations.

Regular contact with users via the user support service of Eurostat.

As part of the rolling review, a survey questionnaire was designed to discover the views of users about Eurostat’s Inland Waterways statistics and their responses to certain proposals for developing the statistical collection. The user survey tool review consisted of four parts:

1. Information about the user,
2. Assessment of Eurostat data,
3. User responses to proposed extensions of data collection and
4. Other matters, including Eurostat service quality.

In addition, the expert conducting the review had a face to face interview with key Commission Services staff and telephone interviews with some River Commission personnel

In general, users expressed a high level of satisfaction with all the factors achieving a positive score with accuracy and clarity being the most highly

The meeting of the Task Force described above was a direct result of the rolling review recommendations.

Data are complete according to the requirements of the Regulation

The overall accuracy is considered to be good given the assessment of data processing.

Not applicable

Data has to be delivered not later than five months after the end of the reference period.

In general all data are delivered according to the deadline.

Geographical comparability is obtained via the application of common concepts and validation rules. The harmonised interpretation of the methodology is enhanced by the organisation of regular meeting of the Working Group, where all participating countries are represented.

The mirror check exercise has highlighted relevant differences on the reported data.

While discrepancies in mirror checks may reveal systemic problems in the recording of the statistics, there could be simpler and more innocent explanations. For example, an Inland Waterways voyage could span two reference periods, leaving the port of loading at the end of a year and arriving at the port of unloading at the beginning of another. This in itself would create a discrepancy.

Another factor is that the port of loading is providing a “prediction” of the port of unloading whereas the port of unloading has full information about the journey. This will create problems when the cargo being carried, such as cereals, is traded in the course of the journey and is diverted away from the predicted port of unloading. A second factor is river conditions, where unusually high or low waters can mean that the voyage cannot be completed as originally planned and the cargo has to be unloaded at an intermediate port. There may also be problems for both the port of loading and unloading in determining the partner port, either because it cannot be identified or it is missing from the Eurostat list. This is complicated if the port names are in a foreign language.

As always, there will be errors and omissions in the reporting of the tonnage of cargo at either the port of loading or port of unloading.

The nationality of the flag of the vessel may not always be clear. There will be additional problems if the ownership of the vessel changes during the course of the voyage. If the change of ownership also leads to a change of flag, this will inevitably create a discrepancy.

There might be a break in time series for certain variables in 2009, due to the different methods of data collection used under the old and the new legislation. In addition, in 2007 there has been a change in the nomenclature applied for the classification of goods that has provoked a break on the time series for the tables showing data by type of goods.

Not applicable.

The quality checks include intra-dataset checks, inter-datasets checks, time series checks and mirror checks (see details under point 18.4). These quality checks detect data that could possibly be in error. Some errors are corrected before publications. Other errors, which require further investigations, are corrected later (see item 17).

Acceptable

All data revisions are taken into account and processed when provided by the national competent authorities.

Revisions are made as more complete information become available or as a result of quality checks.

The Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and Waterway management, Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), provides microdata containing information on the journey of ships on the Dutch inlandwaterway network, including information about the goods  they are carrying.

The input data is then processed and compiled in accordance with the structure required by Eurostat.

The source data is collected on a daily basis. 

Rijkswaterstaat uses calls at locks where a skipper gives all the information. Skippers can also send the data electronically to the infra manager

A validation of data reported is made after receipt of the data from each individual Member State. The main quality checks which are made in the phase of the data preparation for dissemination are formal checks (e.g. format, missing values in datasets, etc.), consistency checks (e.g. comparison of data with data of previous years, cross checks between different tables reported - annual and quarterly values for the same variable) and mirror checks (i.e. check of the values of two countries exchanging goods).

Possible data errors that are detected at this stage are communicated to the countries for checking purposes. Errors are corrected as soon as possible. Where necessary, data are re-supplied by the countries.

In the frame of the data dissemination process Eurostat has to calculate aggregates like the total volume of national transport for each country or the total volume of intra-EU transport. These calculations required the problem of double counting to be solved. The calculations are different for tonnes, TEU and tonne-km and TEU-km for the national, international and transit level for individual countries and the EU. Calculations are based on the territoriality principle i.e. that only transport registered on the territory of the reporting country should be recorded by each individual country for each type of transport. EU aggregates only include data recorded by EU countries and will only be calculated if data for all countries are available.

The EU aggregates are disseminated.

The calculations are conducted in the following way:

At country level:

• National transport: addition of all TONNES/TKM/TEU/ TEU-Km reported by the country when the loading country and the unloading country are the same as the reporting country.
• International transport: addition of all TONNES/TKM/TEU/ TEU-Km reported by the country when either (1) the loading country is equal to the reporting country and the unloading country is different from the reporting country or (2) the loading country is different from the reporting country and the unloading country is equal to the reporting country.
• Transit transport: addition of all TONNES/TKM/TEU/ TEU-Km reported by the country when both the loading country and the unloading country are different from the reporting country.
• Total transport: national transport + international transport + transit transport

At EU level:  

• EU National transport: addition of the national transport data of the reporting EU countries (in 1000T, MIO_TKM, TEU and 1000 TEU-KM)
• EU International transport: addition of the international transport of the reporting EU countries (in MIO_TKM and 1000 TEU-KM)
• EU Transit transport: addition of the transit transport of the reporting EU countries (in MIO_TKM and 1000 TEU-KM)
• EU Total transport: 
  -  EU national transport + EU international transport (in 1000T and TEU)
  -  EU national transport + EU international transport + EU transit transport (in MIO_TKM and 1000 TEU-Km)

Data are compiled in conformity with the Regulation. They are not modified after collection.

Netherlands (NL): Due a methodological change, data before 2012 can not be compared to data after 2012. Especially, the loading and unloading area is not comparable.