Major shortage of inland skippers threatens to make traffic jams even longer, but the sector is coming up with concrete solutions (Antwerp)

The port of Antwerp wants to transport more goods with inland vessels or freight trains and less with trucks. But inland shipping is faced with a huge aging problem. “At least two hundred inland skippers will retire in the next ten years. During that period, only about a hundred young people will graduate from the Maritime School on the Antwerp Left Bank. It is the only Flemish school that trains inland skippers,” says Jacques Kerkhof, chairman of the Fund for Rhine and Inland Navigation (FRB).

“Due to global warming, there are more high and low water levels, causing a shift towards freight traffic again”

Thierry Vanelslander

Transport economist

According to transport economist Thierry Vanelslander (University of Antwerp), the shift from less inland shipping to more trucks is already underway today. “There is a shortage of truck drivers as well as barge drivers, but the truck sector is doing a better job of attracting people from abroad,” he says. “In addition, inland shipping has other problems. Due to global warming, there are more high and low water levels. If the water is too high, inland vessels can no longer pass under the bridges. If the tide is too low, the ships can carry less cargo, otherwise they would hit the bottom. Inland shipping then becomes less efficient and companies are therefore more likely to opt for trucks. As a result, a reverse evolution is taking place than what the government wants: freight traffic is gaining ground compared to inland shipping.”

Of course, the water levels that are too high and too low cannot be resolved quickly. But the inland shipping sector has now come up with solutions for the staff shortage.

Solution 1: train more sailors to become inland skippers

“An inland vessel not only has a skipper on board who steers the vessel, but also sailors,” says Jacques Kerkhof. “They clean the ship, carry out minor repairs and load and unload goods. So they know inland shipping well, but do not have an easily accessible course to become an inland shipping skipper. That’s going to change. The Antwerp Maratime Academy (AMA) has created a digital course with seven modules that sailors and other people can follow at their own pace. This concerns, for example, the many traffic rules for inland shipping and traffic signs.”

“Once the sailor has completed that theoretical course, he can prepare for the inland skipper exam with a sailing simulator worth 1.5 million euros that we purchased with the inland shipping sector fund, the Flemish Government and Europe,” says Jacques Kerkhof. “From October onwards, students can practice all maneuvers with a barge from a Schipperswelzijn classroom in Antwerp and are thus prepared for the barge master exam.”

Solution 2: train more people to become sailors

In October, the Center for Adult Education (CVO) in Antwerp will start training to become a sailor for the first time. The training lasts nine months. This should lead to more sailors and, in the long term, also to more potential inland skippers.

Solution 3: make it easier for captains to transfer

“In fact, not only sailors, but also captains on ships that travel around the world, should easily be eligible for the position of inland skipper,” says Jacques Kerkhof. “Especially because a captain is usually away from home for a full three to four months, while an inland skipper is away for a maximum of two weeks at a time. As an inland skipper you can easily earn 4,000 euros net per month, so that is no problem. Unfortunately, today a captain must first be able to demonstrate at least 360 days of sailing with an inland vessel and often more, before he can take an exam. That’s absurd. We urge the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, in which five European countries are represented, to significantly reduce the minimum number of sailing days.”

Control ship or distance

There’s one last thing. Bright minds have been working on remote control of inland vessels for some time now. Someone then sits in a control room and controls several ships from there. “In the longer term, this can solve the shortage of inland skippers, but there are still important obstacles,” says Thierry Vanelslander. “I am mainly thinking of the legal framework and liability in insurance.”