As traffic congestion increases and European Union member states increasingly try to crack down on air pollution, the nations of Europe and the companies doing business there are taking a closer look at short sea shipping as an alternative to road-rail.

Short sea shipping is a relatively new semantic for the older term, "coastal shipping." The reason the name was changed, according to the Shortsea Shipping Information Bureau in the Netherlands, is because of the larger ships used for this transport and the advent of the shipping container. No matter what it's called, however, the fact is that moving goods by sea, coastal vessels, and rivers-is fast, prompt, economically efficient, and environmentally friendly.

The Belgian Port of Antwerp, which is the fourth-largest port in the world in terms of cargo volume handled, has made a specialty of short sea shipping. Nearly 35% of all the cargo handled by the port is short sea cargo.

In a comparison of the cost of shipping by short sea and road from Antwerp to various European ports, the Port of Antwerp posts some impressive figures. Short sea from Antwerp to Stockholm, Sweden, for example, is 610 euros cheaper than by road; to Dublin, Ireland, 1,250 euros cheaper; to Lisbon, Portugal, 1,110 euros cheaper; and to Helsinki, Finland 1,000 euros cheaper.

Sort sea shipments from the Belgian Port of Flanders to the Baltic states and the Russian Federation can cost between 15% and 40% less than road transport.

In a in a November, 1998, report to the European Commission, the Maritime Research Centre in Southampton, England, compared maximized short sea shipping with a road-rail combination to a maximized road-roll on/roll off ferry combination for a hypothetical shipment from central Ireland to central Germany. In the first instance road travel amounted to 350 km. In the second instance road travel came to 1,080 km. The conclusion was that short sea shipping could save time and money while reducing air pollution caused by trucks.

The European Commission is strongly behind short sea as an alternative to road-rail shipping, saying, "European short sea shipping, as a major link of a global intermodal transport system, will have significant impact on the development of new kinds of ships and new intermodal transportation concepts for passengers, containers, and general cargo."

Drawbacks of Short Sea Shipping

Short sea shipping can, in many cases, be more reliable than road-rail shipping because ships sail on a consistent schedule. There aren't any traffic jams at sea.

When it all works well, the transit times to and from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and Belgium and the Netherlands, for example, are competitive and often faster than those of road transport through France. But there are some drawbacks to short sea shipping that can hinder the process, chief among them is paperwork.

The Maritime Research Centre report shows that the E.U. in this area is, as in so many others, something less than united: "The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) produces standard forms for port arrival and departure, but these are not wholly accepted throughout the E.U. and some member states require national forms to be completed," the report says. "The method of reporting varies from the attendance of the authorities on board the ship to the ship's agent conveying information to the authorities."

Expanding on this problem, the report authors found that Ireland, the Benelux countries (Belguim, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), and the U.K. use a form similar to the IMO standard form, but Denmark, Spain, Finland, and Germany don't.

Forms handling can also differ widely from country to country. In Finland, Denmark, Ireland and the U.K., the ship's agent is permitted to deliver the forms to the authority concerned-sometimes by fax. In Greece, however, it's a regular party on board: Customs, coast guard, and port health authorities all have to attend on board on arrival and departure. In Germany, it's an even bigger party, with customs, border police, port health, and water police joining in.

Although some of the delays caused by paperwork and clearances are endemic to water transportation and unavoidable, the E.U. is working to simplify the process with standard forms and standard entry and departure rules.

So, short sea shipping isn't a panacea in Europe as yet, but-because it's cheaper, sometimes more reliable, and environmentally friendly-companies doing business on the continent should seriously consider it as an alternative mode whenever possible.