A call for transport buyers to “think water” was sounded at a conference organised by Sea and Water, the UK national body working to encourage freight off the roads and on to shortsea, coastal and inland shipping.

Nearly 200 delegates attended the event in Hull where former shipping minister Lord Caithness said shortsea shipping had undergone a revival as the economics of transport had begun to change.

He said contributing factors had been the need to mitigate increasing road congestion and the operating costs of alternative transport methods, especially road. He also cited the lack of real impact of rail initiatives and new high-speed technologies for ferry build and operation.

Lord Caithness said that, politically, seaborne transport was a forgotten business, with government investing in roads and railways but simply subsidising the maritime industry.

&#8220Shortsea transport is the only transport mode capable of keeping up with the rapid economic growth of the EU”

Lord Caithness

“Shortsea transport is the only transport mode capable of keeping up with the rapid economic growth of the EU,” he said, adding that it was also the only mode offering a realistic prospect of substantial shift from road in the future.

Sea and Water president Bo Lerenius, who is also chief executive of Associated British Ports, said UK road congestion cost the economy more than £20bn a year and caused at least one in nine freight deliveries to arrive late.

He said many forward-looking organisations were moving away from just in time delivery and focusing instead on reliability, adding that receivers needed to be sure goods would arrive when their customers wanted them, making water transport the obvious solution.