City logistics through the canals? A simulation study on freight waterborne transport in the inner-city of Amsterdam

This study investigates whether distributing goods across the water to the city of Amsterdam can be a potential future solution considering the busy traffic of the pleasure crafts and touring boats on the canals. A simulation model was developed to analyse the logistics performances and traffic influences for different fleet size configurations. The simulation tests have shown that four vessels are needed to guarantee the requested delivery times, a sufficient loading rate (82%) was generated for each ship, and no significant delays will happen due to interaction with other water traffic. Conclusion of this study is that a waterborne city logistics concept through the canals of Amsterdam has demonstrated the capability to reduce congestion in the inner-city and is able to satisfy the delivery requirements of the shopkeepers without significant interference with other waterborne traffic.