EC OUTLINES MEASURES ON SHORT SEA SHIPPING, STANDARD DOMESTIC CONTAINERS

EC OUTLINES MEASURES ON SHORT SEA SHIPPING, STANDARD DOMESTIC CONTAINERS    The European Commission has adopted a program for the promotion of short sea shipping, along with a proposal for a directive to standardize domestic containers.
   The EC regards short sea as a more environment-friendly alternative to road transport and as a way to reduce congestion.
   The EC program contains 14 actions, including one aimed at harmonizing technical specifications for “swap bodies” (domestic road-rail European containers) in trade within the European Union.
   The short- and medium-term actions include measures to facilitate short sea shipping “by removing obstacles to its growth and improve its general image,” a spokesman for the EC said. The actions also comprise measures to computerize customs procedures and set up “one-stop administrative shopping in ports.”
   The proposed directive on intermodal loading units is intended to allow “standardized, safer, more efficient and stackable equipment” to be transferred more easily from one mode of transport to another. The European committee for Standardization would define technical standards required for all new units.
   The EC also proposed the creation an intermodal loading unit optimized for the transport of pallets. The proposed intermodal loading units would combine the advantages of swap bodies (especially their larger capacity) and containers (especially their greater strength and the possibilities to stack them).
   The new loading units would facilitate transshipment between road, rail, waterways and short sea shipping, the EC said.
   The EC said that short sea shipping is the only mode that has proved able to keep up with the growth of road transport. Its ton-kilometer output grew by up to 38 percent in the 1990’s, as compared to 40 percent growth in road transport.