To improve safety and address current employment challenges in the waterborne transport sector, the VT concept is developed. The VT is a vessel platooning concept that is semi-autonomous. The VT is composed by one Leader Vessel (LV) and Follower Vessels (FVs) that will be connected with each other with sensors. The research examines from a business-economic and societal perspective, whether it is interesting to invest in and use the VT, instead of sailing with a conventional vessel. The business-economic performance of the VT is tested from theperspective of the vessel owner (VO) for the inland navigation trajectory Antwerp – Rotterdam – Duisburg, using a relevant transport model. With this research, the results allow comparison of the total costs of the reference scenario with alternative VT scenarios and thus allow to see which of the scenarios are interesting for the VOs to invest in and use the VT. From a societal perspective, the expected modal shift from road (and possibly rail) to inland waterways and the external cost savingsfor the society are calculated. The results show that for some scenarios the expected benefits of the society are high, thanks to the modal shift from road (and rail) to inland waterway transport (IWT) mode and to the reduced external costs. However, for the scenarios with negative business-economic cost savings, negative welfare gains are found due to the likelihood of reverse modal shift from IWT to road (and rail), because the VT is found more expensive than the conventional sailing. If all the actors of the VT project have benefits, being theVO, the VT organizer (VTO) and the cargo owner (CO), the implementation of the VT concept will be decided. The implementation of the concept can still be decided, if the loss of one of the actors is compensated by the other(s) actor(s). Thus, subsidies by the government are not needed. However, what is needed is the change of the current legislation that would allow the sailing of the VT with reduced crew on board in inland waterways.

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评估轮船概念的性能

为了提高安全性并应对水运领域当前的就业挑战，开发了VT概念。VT是半自主的排船概念。VT由一个领导船（LV）和跟随船（FV）组成，它们将通过传感器相互连接。该研究从商业，经济和社会的角度研究了是否有必要进行投资和使用VT而不是使用常规船只进行航行是否有趣。使用相关的运输模型，从船东（VO）的角度对内陆航行轨迹安特卫普–鹿特丹–杜伊斯堡的VT的商业经济绩效进行了测试。通过这项研究，结果可以比较参考方案和其他VT方案的总成本，从而可以查看哪些方案对于VO进行投资和使用VT来说很有趣。从社会角度出发，计算了从公路（可能还有铁路）到内陆水道的预期模式转换，以及为社会节省的外部成本。结果表明，在某些情况下，由于从公路（和铁路）模式向内陆水路运输（IWT）模式的转变以及降低的外部成本，社会的预期收益很高。但是，对于商业经济成本节省为负的情况，由于从内河运输到公路（和铁路）的逆向模式转换的可能性，发现了负的福利收益，因为VT被认为比传统航行更昂贵。如果VT项目的所有参与者（VO，VT组织者（VTO）和货物所有人（CO））都受益，那么将决定VT概念的实施。如果一个参与者的损失由另一个参与者补偿，则该概念的实施仍可以决定。因此，不需要政府的补贴。但是，需要的是对当前法规进行的更改，以允许在内陆水道上减少船员的情况下航行VT。