TRANSPORTATION
Truck-to-barge shifts freight off crowded roads
Inland barges move containers efficiently and cut city traffic
Electric River Barge. Image by Freight News.
Moving boxes by river can replace long truck hauls, ease congestion, and lower emissions. Cities and ports are reviving container-on-barge and urban river logistics to bring freight closer to customers with fewer road miles.
Mississippi River: 30,000 TEUs a year by barge. Port NOLA’s container-on-barge service now links New Orleans, Greater Baton Rouge, Memphis, and St. Louis, moving an average of 30,000 TEUs per year and expanding inland options for shippers.
Paris: urban river logistics replaces trucks. HAROPA PORT’s Seine-Axis program is scaling barge-fed urban depots; a flagship site at Quai d’Austerlitz (Les Amarres) will bring goods in by barge for last-mile delivery by cargo bike and light EVs.
Vietnam: fully electric container barge enters service. CMA CGM launched a 100% electric river barge in Vietnam, paired with a solar-powered charging station at Cai Mep, showing how barge corridors can sustain first/last-mile flows that would otherwise move by truck.
Flanders: inland navigation rebounds. After a down year, inland waterway traffic in Flanders recovered in 2024, underscoring a regional shift back to barges for heavy and containerized cargo moving to and from Antwerp-Bruges.
Seine strategy: more river capacity and platforms. HAROPA’s 2025 strategy accelerates sustainability with new river links and platforms (e.g., PSMO), strengthening barge capacity to absorb truck flows into the Paris region.
That’s not all: ports are pairing barge shuttles with smart booking and shore-power to speed turn times and cut emissions further. As truck-to-barge corridors mature, expect tighter river–road handoffs and more urban depots designed around waterborne freight.
- TFI
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