The Government is making grants available for anyone interested in
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moving freight on water—at the expense of road haulage. But can such a policy work? Tim
Maughan spoke to people who operate commercial vessels on Britain's canals, rivers and coastal waters. He saw the merits of water transport, but also found that some in the sector—including the shipowners themselves recognise that HGVs have a role to play...
VII! hen it comes to transporting freight on water, the statistics can be staggering when com pared with road haulage. Take the City of Westminster, a roo-metre dredger. She can carry 5,200 tonnes of aggregate—equivalent to 350 individual tipper loads— and the entire cargo can be discharged in just three hours.
This vessel is just one example of a largely unseen UK water transport industry which operates on canals, rivers and within coastal waters. And there has never been a better time to be involved; contrasting starkly with the Government's harsh treatment of hauliers, firms involved in water transportation can look forward to generous cash handouts in the form of freight facilities grants (FFGs).
Although these are only avail
able to firms which operate or intend to set up an operation on inland waterways, companies involved in shifting loads within coastal waters reap benefits such as using tax-free fuel.
The environment is at the centre of Government thinking about FFGs. The information pamphlet published by the DOT says: "FFC is all about the benefits—public, environmental and social—arising from freight being moved by inland waterway rather than by road. In practice this means the environmental benefits of removing lorries from roads."
And the Government is going about the process with real vigour. Quarry owner Aram Resources was awarded a grant of £1,057,900 in March to help with the capital cost of upgrading a jetty on the Lizard. Cornwall, and installing reception facilities at Southampton.
Shipping Minister Glenda Jackson says of FFGs: "This
shows we mean business. We have cut the bureaucracy which was suffocating the grants and made it easier for small companies to apply."
She adds: "We have created the right conditions. It is now up to companies to come forward with good schemes offering clear benefits to the environment."
There is no doubt that the Government is putting its money where its mouth is. Runcornbased KD Marine won a grant of /12.6,000 to help buy a barge and handling equipment for carrying grain from the Seaforth grain terminal in Liverpool to Rank Hovis's Old Trafford mill. According to the DOT, this operation alone will remove 5,000 HGV trips from the LiverpoolManchester corridor every year.
The i,000-tonne Gina D started work on the route in May. KD co-director Keith Dawson, along with his business partner Philip Dunham, was keen to get
into the water freight business. Dawson says: "I worked in the offshore oil and gas industry, and I could see the possibilities of water transport. Philip and I filled in the grant application forms. We got through a lot of paperwork." According to Dawson, the FFG accounted for a hefty 40% of the costs of getting the business off the ground.
Coastal barge
The Gina D, a 25-year-old former coastal barge, travels at lc) knots. What are the benefits of such a vessel over road haulage? Dawson says: "Motorways are jam-packed, but there is nobody else on the canal." He also cites rising truck prices as a disadvantage of road haulage.
For him, the future of canal transport is bright: "We have other plans—there is a good future in this." Within two years he hopes to be running a fleet of eight barges. Importantly, such ambitious aims have the blessing of the Government—people operati ng barges on canals can rely on -"port. "John Prescott is -ays Dawson.
with FFGs available, iaaulage would never transferring or even ui ,,iying their business to canals. That's certainly true of Roger Freeman, co-director of Sutton Coldfield-based William Freeman & Sons. Yet the firm, which runs 14 milk tankers, is literally yards from the Birmingham and Fazeley canal. Freeman explains: "This canal goes right through Birmingham, but I could not see any sense in using it. It is
Ars, • 461:0too slow, and customers would 0 0 have to be based on the side of the canal. Perishable goods like milk cannot be carried this way."
Britain has 4,000 miles of canals, 2,000 of which are managed by the British Waterways Board. Other major canal operators include the Environment Agency, the Broads Authority and the Manchester Ship Canal.
But water freight is not restricted to canals: rivers also play a part. CM paid a visit to the Tracy Bennett, a 73o-tonne barge which works on the Thames. She is owned by Alan Bennett & Sons, a firm which also operates four tugs and six erigineless barges. Skipper Peter Still offers a reassuring arm which helps to bridge the gap between the vessel and the quay.
Eft barg0
When landlubbers think of a barge, the image of a small, flat boat probably springs to mind. The Tracy Bennett is the largest powered barge on the Thames and is a little different. She is 55m long and irm across, and can carry a load of 1,200 tonnes. The barge usually picks up aggregates from RMC's Northfleet base and delivers them to RMC' s depot at Battersea Wharf—a distance of 22 miles.
Naturally, the occupational hazards of the job are a little different from those of road haulage. Knowledge of the tides is crucial: the vessel might not be able to pass under bridges at high tide, and there are II bridges to negotiate between Northfleet and Battersea.
The scale of the operation is certainly impressive. A colossal grab smashes down into the 70ftlong hold, making the Tracy Bennett tremble as a ro-tonne load of shingle is scooped out.
In the bowels of the ship there are six cabins, a galley and two messrooms. The engine is more of a large room than a motor— there are turbines and a mass of pipes, and the vessel carries 14 tonnes of diesel.
Ultimately, of course, all this machinery is for the purpose of getting materials to the customer. Still says: "We never get held up, really, except when we are discharging and loading. Back in the 19505 the Thames was crammed with barges and tugs, but not today. It is ideal for us."
The vessel is just one of 3o,000 that pass through the Thames Barrier every year. In total, four million tonnes of cargo are transported on the Thames every year. In addition, a million tonnes of domestic waste are transferred down river to landfill sites from depots at Wandsworth, the City and Tower Hamlets.
However, Still is fully aware that trucks have to be part of the larger equation. The Tracey Bennett's payload is impressive, but consignments have to be transported by land as well as water. "We still have to have trucks involved," he remarks.
The Government is championing freight on water at the expense of road haulage, but the fact remains that trucks are a vital component of freight transport.
A few miles down the Thames, in Greenwich, CM sees a graphic example of the alliance between water and road. Fourteen tippers operate from United Marine Aggregate's (U MA's) depot at Murphy's Wharf. The firm's four dredgers collect aggregates from the English Channel and the North Sea and bring the loads to Greenwich; then the aggregates are delivered to the customer by tipper. Trains, run by English, Welsh &
Scottish Railways, run from the Greenwich site.
Further upstream barges are loaded with aggregates at Delta Wharf, just yards from the Millennium Dome. There UMA trades under the name of Blackwall Aggregates, along with partner Hanson Aggregates. Two million tonnes of aggregates are delivered to Murphy's Wharf and Delta Wharf every year.
Tarmac Quarry Products also makes use of water transport: its asphalt plant, which produces 15o,000 tonnes of the product every year, uses sand delivered by ship from Fingringhoe, Essex. Six tractive units operate from its site at Granite Wharf, Greenwich. Andy Watson, Tarmac Quarry Products logistics manager for the southern region, says of water transport: "I think it has a part to play, but it will never impact on roads."
Big costs
Again, it is all a question of scale. U MA's City of Westminster, the company's largest ship, is coo metres long, just over 17 metres across, and can carry 5,200 tonnes. Inevitably, big statistics equate to big costs. According to UMA director and general manager Kevin Seaman, such a dredger costs porn.
It's annual running costs are also a little higher than your average HGV: £500,000 in wages, £400,000 for fuel and L80,000 a year for insurance.
Then there are taxes to pay. For every tonne of aggregate extracted from the seabed, UMA must pay the Crown Estate—in practice, the Treasury—between 5o and 70p, depending on the exact type of load. The Port of London Authority also imposes a tax, of 15-20p per tonne.
The crucial thing to bear in mind is the benefit offered by a certain mode of transport. Obviously, only ships can collect and deliver loads from the seabed—you wouldn't expect HGVs to be part of this process.
But Seaman points out that under the right conditions, ships can actually be an alternative to road transport. He explains that UMA dredgers sailing from the Channel or the North Sea could deliver their loads on the Kent or Essex coast, thereby shortening the sea journey. However, that would mean using a fleet of HGVs to move the consignments to Greenwich and Murphy's Wharf—and there is little point in that extra complication.
Additionally, Seaman points out that loads could be taken from one port to another by UMA ships; in this way water transport is capitalised upon, at the expense of roads.
"Big bulk fleets are not available now, and there is not the pool of casual hauliers like there used to be," says Seaman. "Using the ships is not always cheaper, but often it is the only way we can get the job done." UMA ships might occasionally transport loads from Shoreham on the South Coast to Greenwich.
For UMA, ships play a vital role. But unless the customers' premises are conveniently situated by water, trucks are needed to get consignments to their destination. Seaman concludes: "Trucks are an important part of the general operation."
It's not every day the Government dishes out money to the private sector— but for those interested In putting freight on water the cash seems to be flowing like...water. Freight facility grants (FFGs) are available to cover the capital costs of getting a water transport business off the ground.
FFGs are only available for inland waterways. Howeverr, for this purpose "inland waterways" include all waterways upstream of a point where a river or estuary narrows so the opposite banks are no more than 5km apart at high water spring tide, or 3km apart at low water
The environment is at the core of Government FFG policy. The Government recognises that transferring freight from road to water can be expensive, and FFGs are designed to compensate for this problem. The FFG information pamphlet sets out the criteria which must be met: • Calculations must be made which take into account the tonnage which can be committed to water over an agreed number of years, and how many truck journeys this will save:
it Capital expenditure must be involved;
The Transport Secretary must be satisfied that if the proposed facility is not provided the freight which would have used it will be carried by road;
• The DOT must look at the net environmental benefits. For example, servicing an inland waterway could lead to increased HGV traffic locally. Such drawbacks will have to be taken into account to arrive at the net benefits of a proposed scheme.
For more information on FFGs, contact any of the following: Department of Transport: 0171 890 6846.
Welsh Office: 01222 825111 (extn 6516).
Scottish Office Development Department, Transport and Local Roads Division:
0131244 0867.