Memorandum from Nautilus UK (FT 40)
1. INTRODUCTION
Nautilus UK is the trade union and professional
organisation representing more than 18,000 shipmasters, officers,
trainees and other skilled staffs working at sea and ashore in
the maritime sector.
Nautilus UK welcomes the Transport Committee's
decision to conduct an inquiry into the issue of freight and government
transport policy. We are pleased to be able to contribute evidence
to the inquiry, although we will largely confine our input to
maritime-related issues.
2. THE CONTEXT
OF THE
INQUIRY
Nautilus UK firmly supports the Transport Committee's
previous call for the government to develop an integrated freight
plan. We have consistently argued the case for further measures
to encourage greater use of waterborne transport as a means of
moving freight into, out of, around and within the UK. As far
back as 1968, a former general secretary commented: "Coastwise
shipping can make economical use of our island situation. Motor
roads are expensive to build and maintain, but the seaways provide
natural traffic routes around the coasts and across to the Continent."
Britain remains, essentially, an island nation
and around 95% of our imports and exports go by sea. There are
more than 300 commercial ports around the country, and over 2,000
miles of rivers, estuaries and inland waterways capable of carrying
freight. However, water transport is invariably overlooked as
a way of cutting carbon emissions and reducing congestion in the
nation's roads and despite the adoption in 2000 of new government
maritime policies, the UK shipping industry continues to face
severe unfair competitive pressures and our pool of maritime expertise
continues to decline. Further action is urgently required if the
benefits of any increase in waterborne freight movements are to
flow through to the UK shipping industry and to British seafarers.
We believe that the case for waterborne transport
is strong, but that existing initiatives promoted by the Department
for Transport have failed to generate the desired increases in
freight volumes being carried around the coast and on inland waterways.
In many ways, key elements of government transport policy conflict
with, or severely inhibit, the stated aims of reducing the impact
of freight movement on congestion, safety, and the environment.
Significant enhancements of support measures, and radical, proactive,
programmes to fully harness the potential of waterborne transport
are required.
In presenting our evidence to the Committee,
we have sought to answer the following questions within the limitations
of our scope of representation.
3. IS THE
DEPARTMENT'S
INVESTMENT IN
LOGISTICS PROGRAMMES—INCLUDING
THE SUSTAINABLE
DISTRIBUTION FUND—GOOD
VALUE FOR
MONEY AND
MEETING THE
OBJECTIVES?
Nautilus UK is concerned that the Department
for Transport's existing policy and support measures have failed
to deliver the objectives of increasing waterborne transport's
contribution to more balanced and sustainable freight movements.
There are major challenges facing the DfT in the years ahead.
Transport is the only sector of the UK economy in which carbon
emissions were higher in 2004 than in the baseline year of 1990
and the only sector in which emissions are projected to be higher
in 2020 than in 1990. Road congestion is already considerable,
with one in nine of freight deliveries arriving late because of
hold-ups and 25% of the most used motorways suffering from traffic
jams. All projections suggest the situation is set to get much
worse—with road traffic due to grow by a further 33% over
the next 20 years.
Waterborne transport offers huge potential to
alleviate such problems. Ships are an extremely energy-efficient
means of transporting large volumes of freight, far outstripping
both aircraft and lorries in the relation between energy consumption
and cargo volumes. There is extensive evidence to show the environmental
benefits to be gained by transferring more freight to water. The
largest containerships can move almost 50 miles using the same
amount of energy per tonne of cargo that a jumbo jet uses travelling
less than one third of a mile. Freight can be carried on coastal
ships and inland waterways with 80% fewer carbon dioxide emissions
than from road haulage, whilst carrying cargo by water rather
than road reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by around one-third.
The "maritime motorways" around the UK do not need to
be built and repaired, or require a costly infrastructure of support
services. They can significantly reduce atmospheric pollution,
noise pollution, road congestion, and visual intrusion, and permit
high degrees of flexibility in routeing and capacity.
There are numerous examples of waterborne transport
projects in various parts of the UK that take large numbers of
lorries off the roads—with the Thames offering a case in
point. Cory Environmental's use of barges to carry waste from
London to Essex cuts around 100,000 lorry movements a year from
the capital. Water transport is particularly suited to the movement
of bulk cargoes, unitised cargoes (containers and swap bodies)
and non-perishable cargoes.
However, whilst the government has stated its
desire to increase the proportion of freight carried by water,
its own statistics suggest that it is not achieving success in
this area. According to the Freight & Logistics section of
the DfT publication Transport Trends 2006, the volume of UK freight
moved increased overall by 47% between 1980 and 2005. Goods moved
by road over this period increased by 76%, to now account for
64% of all goods moved (against 53% in 1980). By contrast, goods
moved by water increased by just 13% between 1980 and 2005, and
waterborne transport's share of overall freight movements actually
reduced, from 31% to 24% over the same period.
Measured in terms of total weight of goods lifted
between 1980 and 2005, road transport experienced a 34% increase
and now accounts for 82% of all goods lifted, compared with 79%
in 1980. The weight of goods lifted by water declined by 3% between
1980 and 2005, and now accounts for 6% of all goods lifted.
In 2000, British Waterways promised to double
the amount of goods going on water by 2010. But by 2005, the amount
had actually fallen—from 4.3 million tonnes to 3.4 million
tonnes.
4. INTERNATIONAL
DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS
INVOLVING AIR
FREIGHT INCREASE
CARBON DIOXIDE
BY UP
TO 30 TIMES
THAT OF
SEA TRANSPORT
What More Can be Done to Promote Modal Shift from
Road and Air Freight to Inland Waterway, Shipping and Rail? How
can the Government encourage and incentivise further efficiency
improvements?
The committee is correct to identify the significant
environmental benefits to be gained through waterborne transport.
Shipping moves large volumes of freight with significantly smaller
proportionate emissions of key greenhouse gases than other modes
of transport. By encouraging a greater volume of freight to be
moved on water, the government will increase its chances of attaining
policy goals to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions, minimise pollution,
make better use of transport infrastructure, and reduce noise
and disturbance from freight movements.
The environmental benefits of shipping have
been recognised for many years. In 1994, the Royal Commission
on Environmental Pollution recommended measures to increase the
proportion of UK freight carried by water from 25% in 1993 to
30% by 2000. Governmental concern about increasingly congested
roads in the early 1990s prompted the commissioning of the report
UK Roads to Water, followed by a study of the potential for transferring
more freight from the road to the sea. This research identified
the challenges facing such initiatives, including: the geographic
concentrations of economic and industrial activity within the
UK; long-term decline in core coastal trades such as petroleum
and dry bulks; the cost of investment to upgrade existing facilities
to commercial standards; and problems in competing with road transport
over distances of less than 400 km. Nevertheless, it also identified
the potential for around 3.5% of UK road freight to shift to water.
Roads have traditionally been provided by the
public sector, with construction and maintenance funded through
the government. Whilst the concept of road pricing may start to
alter this principle, it remains the case that the cost of providing
various transport modes needs to be assessed as part of the overall
policy framework and potential support mechanisms. Similarly,
Nautilus UK believes there is more scope for the government to
reflect on the economic, social and environmental impact of road
congestion when assessing the level of support available for waterborne
transport. With a more realistic reflection of the social costs
of road transport incorporated within freight user costs, there
would be not only a more level playing field for waterborne transport
but also a greater incentive for shippers to look at alternatives
to the use of HGVs.
The DfT's own statistics—Waterborne
Freight in the UK 2005—demonstrate the social value
and the environmental impact of the Freight Facilities Grants
for inland waterways and coastal/short-sea shipping projects.
Between 1998 and 2005, a total of £47.8 million in grants
saved a total of 1,368.6 million lorry miles. Worryingly, however,
the number and value of the grants declined after peaking in 2001.
Water transport also needs to be protected and
enhanced not only through grant schemes, but also through the
planning system, regional development programmes and wider transport
policy. Whilst shipping is a relatively inexpensive way of moving
freight for considerable distances, costs can increase as a result
of modal transfers and attention must be paid to increasing efficiency
to facilitate the transfer from road to water. With growing pressure
for residential development of waterfront areas, there is a pressing
need for planning policies that identify and protect port facilities.
There is also a strong case for more support
for R&D into ship design to develop fast, efficient and environmentally-friendly
vessels that can contribute to reducing the saturation of the
road network and overcoming some of the design, technology and
operational hurdles that serve as restraints on shipping's ability
to take more freight off the roads. There is an increasingly desperate
need for major investment in port and inland waterways infrastructure,
and support for this would help to improve efficiency and productivity,
as well as harnessing technological advances—addressing
some of the problems that presently inhibit increased use of waterborne
freight options.
Concerns have recently been raised that the
government is considering a dilution of its stated policy of preferring
the use of water transport to move large abnormal indivisible
loads (AILs) to avoid clogging up the roads.
The Commercial Boat Operators Association warned
in September that the criteria for permitting the use of roads
appeared to be being loosened.
Nautilus UK would also urge the government to
take a more proactive role in promoting short-sea shipping and
inland waterways. Research has demonstrated a considerable lack
of understanding about the benefits that waterborne transport
can offer, and more needs to be done to tackle such elements as
the fragmented nature of logistics markets and low levels of awareness
of the maritime sector. Further work is also required to more
clearly identify potential markets for waterborne transport services
and the ports or infrastructure improvements required to support
increased and improved shipping services.
Nautilus UK is also keen to see action to overcome
the obstacles—real or perceived—that inhibit the use
of water as a greener way of moving goods.
We are worried that the often simplistic public
and political debate over "food miles" fails to reflect
the fact that the vast majority of food from abroad comes by sea
and, as such, can have less of a carbon footprint than produce
grown in the UK. There seems to be an automatic assumption that
all food arriving from abroad comes by air. In fact, the vast
majority comes by sea. However, whilst air freight accounts for
just 0.1% of total food miles, it generates around 13% of total
food transport CO2 emissions. Carrying a kilo of produce by air
from South Africa, for instance, would generate 15 kg of CO2.
Take it by sea, and the figure is just 0.1 kg.
Any genuine reckoning of the environmental impact
of food miles requires much more than a glib assumption that all
transport is bad. All the available evidence shows that using
shipping is a sustainable system that can bring benefits not only
to consumers but also to producers in developing nations. We need
to beware of the food miles movement being used in a way that
threatens international trade and the sometimes, fragile export
markets in many nations.
4.1 AIR
FREIGHT IN
THE SOUTH-EAST
IS FORECAST
TO GROW
FROM 2.2 MILLION
TONNES A
YEAR IN
2003 TO 14 MILLION
TONNES BY
2030—HAS THE
DEPARTMENT ADEQUATELY
PLANNED FOR
THE CAPACITY
AND ACCESS
IMPLICATIONS OF
THIS VERY
SIGNIFICANT GROWTH?
HOW WILL
TRANSPORT NETWORKS
NEED TO
ADJUST TO
SERVE THE
GROWING AIR
FREIGHT MARKET?
4.2 Should the Department
have more responsibility for planning and delivering integrated
infrastructure, which might promote "free movement of goods"?
How is this to be balanced with the Department's other commitments?
What should be the priorities for the Transport Innovation Fund
productivity stream?
Nautilus UK wishes to address these questions
as one, within the context of our maritime perspective. We would
emphasise our evidence to the Transport Committee's inquiry into
the UK ports industry, in which we expressed profound concerns
about the government's "hands-off" approach to port
policy and development. This inquiry exposed some serious shortcomings
in the DfT's approach to safeguarding port facilities from development
pressures and to the development of an over-arching national ports
policy that reflects wider regional, social, economic and environmental
needs. The government's stated adherence to free market principles
in port development fundamentally compromises its attempts to
promote a more rational use of waterborne transport. It threatens
to exacerbate existing port congestion problems, which in turn
provide greater disincentives for modal transfer. The development
of waterborne transport as an alternative to road freight is seriously
inhibited by the comparatively poor road and rail links to many
key UK ports, and this issues needs greater attention in terms
of support approaches.
There is a need for strategic direction and
vision to support the policy goals of increasing waterborne freight
volumes. The Transport Committee identified the way in which the
development of an integrated freight plan would help to realise
such targets, and to identify and address some of the existing
obstacles to greater use of coastal shipping and inland waterways.
Similarly, the need for a "joined-up" approach—with
responsibility for inland waterways transferred from Defra to
the DfT—is also essential.
The importance of strategic policy direction
is all the more important given the proactive approach taken by
many other EU member states. Back in 1970, the National Economic
Development Council report on shortsea shipping stated: "We
have an impression that some of our other European competitors
regard their ports as strategic points of industrial and commercial
development—in our opinion wisely—whereas we may be
in danger of missing our own opportunities to achieve the same
results". Nautilus UK is concerned that this statement is
as true now as it was some 37 years ago.
5. HOW SUCCESSFULLY
HAS THE
GOVERNMENT INFLUENCED
EUROPEAN NEGOTIATIONS
REGARDING FREIGHT
OPERATIONS? HOW
COULD THE
GOVERNMENT HELP
TO ENSURE
A LEVEL
PLAYING FIELD
BETWEEN UK AND
OVERSEAS FREIGHT
COMPANIES?
It's almost a decade since the European Commission
first came up with the concept of motorways of the sea, to cut
congestion on major road routes by making more use of short-sea
shipping. The proposals were detailed in a 2001 transport policy
white paper and given further substance in the "Motorways
of the Seas" plans produced in 2003, which identified potential
services in SW Europe, SE Europe, western Europe and the Baltic
as a pivotal part of the concept. France, Spain and Italy were
quick to embrace the plans, and have put forward various projects
to encourage the use of shipping in place of busy, congested and
"bottleneck" road routes.
The Commission's plans were pre-dated by a pioneering
Italian project in the 1990s. The Autostrada del Mare scheme sought
to relieve congestion on land by running a five-ship freight ro-ro
link between the north and south of the country. The strategic
vision behind such a scheme offered a positive example of the
benefits to be gained from modal shift.
However, the UK seems to have been stalled on
the hard shoulder of the maritime motorways concept and only now
is it even starting to invite proposals for operating such services.
Although ministers have stated support for the "maritime
motorways" principle, they have refused to identify key UK
ports to be linked to such schemes on the grounds that this would
interfere with the commercial market.
6. ADDITIONAL
POINTS
Nautilus UK believes that, in adopting more
proactive policies to promote the use of waterborne freight transport,
the government could help to achieve some of the goals of its
maritime policies. We are seriously concerned at the long-term
decline in the UK-flag fleet share of waterborne freight movements
around the UK—down from more than 35% in the mid-1980s to
just 12% in 2005. The increasingly extensive use of foreign, often
flag of convenience, shipping in our coastwise and one-port traffic
trades presents a number of worrying developments—raising
questions over safety and welfare, seafarer employment, training
and shipboard conditions, as well as on the economic and strategic
implications. More attention should be paid to these issues, and
to policy measures to boost the role of British shipping and seafarers
in this sector.
7. CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS
Nautilus UK believes that waterborne transport
offers a vast, but largely untapped, potential to ease some of
the pressing problems that face the government in terms of freight
transport. To ensure that this potential is properly harnessed
requires strategic vision and radical action by the government.
Nautilus UK believes the following measures are necessary to ensure
that the social, economic and environmental benefits of waterborne
transport are developed:
— Economic incentives/disincentives
to encourage the use of coastal shipping and inland waterways
for freight movements and to reflect the externalities of road
transport.
— Improve government support measures
for the development of new waterborne freight services.
— Safeguard existing port and dock
freight handling facilities.
— Support investment in improved port
infrastructure and road and rail links to port facilities.
— Support research and development
into new and improved technologies and operating systems for waterborne
freight movements, research into potential new coastal shipping
services, and into enhanced modal transfer methods.
— Support initiatives to promote awareness
of maritime transport as an option for freight movements.
— Identify and develop UK ports and
services that could form part of European "motorways of the
sea" programmes.
— Improve government support for UK
coastal and short-sea shipping, and enhance the training support
for UK seafarers.
October 2007
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