Logistics Dec 18, 2014

Inland ports in Bavaria

The beautiful landscape of Bavaria not only offers mountains and lakes, forests and meadows or villages and cities, but also many rivers. And these rivers in turn are not only scenic, but they can also be looked at from a logistics perspective. Just like pearls on a string, 24 ports are lined up from Aschaffenburg to Passau along the Main River, the Main-Danube canal and the Danube.

In the first half of 2014, more than 4.1 million tonnes of goods were handled by the Bavarian inland waterway transport. That is a welcome development for two reasons: Firstly, for Bavaria as a business location, as it can also be seen as a sign of Bavaria's economic strength and success; and, secondly, for the environment – depending on the dimensions of the ship or the type of goods being transported, a ship easily has the same capacity as more than 100 lorries! In addition, ships are particularly efficient in terms of emissions and consumption. In this respect, inland ports are more than “mere” ports. Nowadays, most inland ports are “trimodal” goods distribution centres, i.e. they include all three types of transportation routes – roads, railways and rivers. Bavarian inland ports may therefore play a decisive role in an efficient and sustainable logistics concept. Establishing a new business location in close vicinity to a port might be quite beneficial – the infrastructure is already in place. You can find more information on the inland ports in Bavaria at: http://www.stmi.bayern.de/vum/wasser/haefenundgueter/index.php.