Glossary

B

• Boatmasters' licence: Inland-waterway boatmasters'certificate for use on the Rhine

C

• Cabotage: Transport operations between two ports within one and the same country
• Container: Standard-size box used to carry goods
• Combined transport: A complete transport operation involving various modes of transport

D

• Dead-weight: Total laden mass, in metric tonnes, of a vessel

H

• Hinterland: All of the regions inland of a sea port and linked to that port by waterways

I

• Intermodality: Use of several transport modes for a given goods-transport operation
• Interoperability: Suitability of a transport network for movements without breaking bulk

L

• Linear: Mathematical linear application: its representation in a graph is a straight line passing through the reference-point origin

O

• Old for new: A method of regulating capacity whereby the owner of a vessel which is to be placed in service either scraps old vessel tonnage or pays a special contribution

P

• Pushed lighter: Lighters are tethered together in convoys that are propelled by a pusher craft
• Pushed convoy: Formed by converting a former self-propelled barge into a lighter and placing it in front of a self-propelled barge or by locating one (or several) lighters in front of a pusher craft (all combinations are possible within the limits of lock dimensions)
• Pusher craft: Powered craft used solely for pushing purposes

R

• Ratio: Ratio used as part of the old for new system
• Rota system: System of inland-waterways chartering consisting of distributing customer requests for transport according to the order in which vessels become available after unloading and have been registered by their owners at a charter clearing house. The prices in this system are set by the public authority and the conditions applying to the transport operations supplied.

S

• Self-propelled barge: Powered inland-waterway vessel
• Special contributions: As part of the old-for-new rule which applies when a new vessel is placed in service, the owner has the choice of making a cash payment or scrapping a vessel in compensation.
• Serious Market crisis: Defined in Council Directive 96/75/EC of 19 November 1996: the emergence, in the inland waterway transport market, of problems specific to that market likely to cause a serious and potentially persistent excess of supply over demand, thereby posing a serious threat to the financial stability and survival of a large number of inland waterway carriers, unless the short and medium term forecasts for the market in question indicate substantial and lasting improvements
• Scrapping: Dismantling an inland-waterway vessel in order to make it completely unusable for transport purposes

T

• Towed barge: Unpowered inland waterway vessel
• Tonne-kilometre: Unit used to measure freight traffic corresponding to the carriage of one tonne for one kilometre
• Transit: Carriage of goods from one country to another through a country where no stop is made