Which public parties are participating in the project?

The following parties are currently represented within the Watertruck+ project.

Flemish Government: the European Commission made a Call for proposals within the 2014 CEF Transport Calls – Multi-Annual Work Programme on 11th September 2014.The Flemish Government, represented by the Flemish Minister Ben Weyts, submitted an application for the Watertruck+ project on 26th February 2015. This led to the signing of a Grant Agreement between the INEA and the Flemish Government on 4th December 2015, under which Waterwegen & Zeekanaal nv shall act as the lead partner.

Implementing bodies – bvba Watertruck+: The Flemish government mandated Waterwegen & Zeekanaal nv and De Vlaamse Waterweg nv (nv De Scheepvaart) in conjunction with the Expertise Centre for Smart Mobility of the Antwerp Management School (previously Flanders Institute for Mobility)established a with the intention of creating a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) bvba Watertruck+.

Bvba Watertruck+ is responsible for the project development, the design (standardisation, design, innovation), the construction and the delivery of the vessels to the operators, the creation of a master plan, the dissemination of the project results and communication. The public parties are the initiators of the Watertruck+ project and were involved in the preceding Interreg project. They are the founders of bvba Watertruck+.

Shippers: Shipper Waterwegen & Zeekanaal (Project Nieuwe Stede) has appointed, through a public tendering procedure, an operator for the transportation of 415,000 tonnes fort he period of7 years in Call I. As a result,the modal shift of cargo flows to waterborne transportation has been realized.

Operators: Operator De Cloedt signed the ‘Design and construct to use’ agreement as a result of Call I in early 2015. Through this individual agreement, this operator commits itself to deploy 10 CEMT-I barges and 6 CEMT-II barges in their operations. De Cloedt will co-invest in the vessels that are to be built for their flows. They state having practical experience with inland navigation and having sufficient cargo at their disposal. During the selection procedure, a lot of importance was given to new flows and to flows that are open to a modal shift.

Watertruck+ published a second call in order to find extra shippers and operators in September 2016. As a result of this second call, additional ‘Design and construct to use’ agreements have been signed with operators De Cloedt and André Celis.