1 Design objective concluding in research
plan/report structure/from design objective
towards a research plan
This chapter will form a conclusion of the exploration and the scope setting process of
the project. First a decision is made for a corridor where the river sea concept will be
operating. Secondly a type product, which will be shipped in this corridor, will be
chosen. Based on this a design objective, including sub-objectives, is formed and
elaborated on. The chapter concludes in a description of the report’s structure based on
an arrangement of the sub-objectives relating to the main design objective.
1.1 Design objective
In the general introduction of this report the concept of river sea transport is imposed.
This concept implies transport over water characterised by the absence of the transhipment of
the load unit in a sea port. Because transhipment is no longer required a decrease in transport
time and costs can be achieved. To implement this river sea concept a design has to be made
which serves as input for a business case, see preface. To create a design of such a concept
several boundaries has to be formed. Main boundaries are the service area and the product that
will be shipped with this river sea concept to be designed. The project description in the preface
prescribed Northern Europe as an initial service area. This area is still to extensive to design a
business case with; in chapter 3 suitable corridors are identified. Besides a geographical service
area, the project description prescribed slow moving retail product to be shipped with the river
sea concept. The choice for a specific slow moving retail product is not easily being made.
Therefore chapter 4 defines the characteristics of a slow moving retail product.
With these elaborations on service area and product characteristics, a choice for a corridor to
serve and a product combination can be made. Based on the corridors identified, the trade flows
and statistics in Northern Europe, all described in chapter 3. The decision is made to serve the
corridor between seaports in the UK and inland terminals in the Ruhr area with the port of
Rotterdam as a possible transfer location.
The choice for a specific product can be made based on the identified characteristic of typical
slow moving products and the type of load unit corresponding with this type of product. In the
past some studies have been made on container transport with the river sea concept, see
(Konings 2000). This triggers the decision not to focus on the transportation of containerised
slow moving retail goods, but to focus only on transporting vehicles with the river sea transport
concept. Based on the chosen corridor, the next step is to find out what kinds of vehicles could
be transported between the Ruhr area and the UK. Looking at the type of vehicles a distinction
can be made between agricultural vehicles, commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles.
According to data from the ACEA(ACEA 2009), Germany and the UK can be classified as
passenger vehicle producing countries, based on the number of passenger vehicle producing
plants. This fact, combined with the data of new car registrations in the UK (SMMT 2009) and
Germany (Kraftfahr-Bundesamt 2009), leads to the conclusion that a considerable number of
cars is transported between Germany and the UK. This results in the decision to include only
passenger vehicles as the type of product to be transported in the corridor Ruhr area and the UK.
In the previous paragraph the surface corridor and the type of product to be shipped are being
determined. Before further elaboration on the business case, the transport service concept for
shipping passenger vehicle between the UK and Ruhr area has to be designed. Therefore the
following design objective is set:
Design a transport service concept for transportation of passenger vehicles
between the UK and Ruhr-area without transfer in a seaport, while maintaining
operational performance and financial feasibility.
In this objective elements are defined of which specific design sub-objectives can be derived.
These sub objectives will be categorized and elaborated on below.
1.2 Analysis of current practices in transport of vehicles
The fact that for the business case a clear choice to transport passenger vehicles is made, allows
one to elaborate more on the specific data related to the chosen product. These characteristics
are important to gain insight about the quantities, ways of transport and locations of the
product. Corresponding design sub-objectives are obtained:
- Identifying production locations (origin) of passenger vehicles, both in Germany and
the UK.
- Determine the number of passenger vehicles to be transported between UK and
Germany.
- Identifying shipping locations (destination) of passenger vehicles, both in Germany
and the UK.
- Identifying the current practices on transporting passenger vehicles between
production and shipping locations in the UK and Germany.
- Determining the costs involved with current ways of transporting passenger
vehicles.
1.3 Design of river sea vessel and concept and matching with the
market
A river sea shipping transport service concept spans a wide range of combinations of nautical
activities on both inland waterways and seas. These combinations vary in ship and service
design. Some of these combinations have direct derivatives such as transport time and number
of stops. The design of this transport service concept will serve as input for the business case.
Following sub-objectives can be identified:
- Identifying the requirements transportation of passenger vehicles imposes on the
river sea transport concept.
- Identifying the requirements the water infrastructure of the surface corridor
superimposes on the river sea transport concept.
- Identifying various ship design concepts.
- Determining the influences the river sea transport concept imposes on the service
design.
- Designing the primary specifications of the designed vessel in terms of dimensions,
on board equipment and hull shape, and determine the derived specifications (e.g.
capacity).
- Determining the operational costs corresponding to the ship design
- Designing the service cycle schedule: activities with corresponding time periods and
costs.
1.4 Operational performance & financial feasibility
In order to obtain a good insight in the viability of the idea involving the river sea transport
service concept, it is important to identify its competitiveness compared with current practices.
This comparison is twofold. At first, a comparison is made in order to see whether the new
concept is able to meet the current market standards in terms of time, regularity and reliability.
Secondly an economic assessment is made for the concept, comparing costs (running costs and
initial costs) to determine a feasible region for the implementation of the concept. Critical
questions in this design aspect are:
- Performing a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis.
- Performing an investment analysis for the proposed transport service concept.
- Determining the competitive price for the proposed transport service concept.
1.5 From design objective to report structure
Previous paragraphs in this chapter suggested that this project will consists of a design task and
forming a business case. This design task will focus on designing a river sea ship with a
corresponding service tailored for the market. Especially the fact the design has to be tailored to
the market is of most important concern for the viability of the application of the river sea
concept. Therefore initial research has to be conducted on the corridor UK – Ruhr area, and the
transportation of vehicles in this corridor. The business case will focus on the operational
performance and the financial feasibility of the designed vessel and service. The purpose of the
business case is to persuade a potential party to invest in this particular application of a river sea
concept.
These parts of the project can be traced back to the design objective and the derived sub-
objectives of this project. In the design objective several important elements can be
distinguished. Based on these elements a division into sub-questions is formed. Firstly
“transportation of passenger vehicles between the UK and Ruhr-area” relates to the analysis of
current practices in transport of passenger vehicles, which will be handled in part II of this
report. Secondly “transport service concept” and “without transfer in a seaport” which refers to
the physical design of the river sea ship and service tailored to the market. This will be
elaborated in part III of the report. Thirdly “Operational performance and financial feasibility”
which relates to business case that will be formed in part IV of this report.
Design a transport service concept for transportation of passenger vehicles between the UK and Ruhr-area
without transfer in a seaport, while maintaining operational performance and financial feasibility
PART II PART III PART IV
Analysis of current Design of river sea ship
Operational performance
practices in transport of and service and matching
& financial feasibility
passenger vehicles with the market
Figure 1.1- Design objective related to the structure of the report.