InnoWaTr - Centre of Expertise

IWT : Total Cost of Ownership

InnoWaTr Centre of Expertise

Total Cost of Ownership ( TCO ) is a comprehensive financial assessment that

considers all expenses for a product or service over its entire lifecycle . This

includes not only the initial capital expenditure , but also expenses during

operations , for maintenance and upgrades , as well as training and disposal

expenses . Unit costs harmonised based on total amount of output of the asset

over its lifecycle , allow for fair comparison of different products or services .

We used a TCO model to compare IWT with road freight ( RFT ) based on

standardized technical and operational constants . In urban operations , road

freight has lower TCO compared to IWT , though IWT can become competitive

in contexts where congestion reduces the efficiency of truck operations . We

found that battery - swapping technology significantly improves the

competitiveness of electric vessels for long - distance operations . Integrated

IWT - RFT strategies should be designed according to their respective logistics

processes to ensure that both modes perform near optimal logistics efficiency

levels .

TCO modelling constants include

• a 250 - ton capacity vessel ( 175 - ton

payload ) , compared to diesel and

electric trucks with 26 . 2 and 23 . 5 tons

respectively .

• Vessel operation over 30 - year

lifetimes / 24 hours per day ( trucks : 7 -

year lifetime / 8 hours per day due to

labor regulations ) .

• Operating speeds differ : 8 . 3 km / h for

vessels and 36 km / h for urban trucks .

• Emissions factors are sourced from

literature , and external cost values

follow the EU Handbook on the

External Costs of Transport including a

carbon tax .

• Fuel and energy prices evolve over

the 30 - year horizon , and residual

values , maintenance , and other cost

components vary by mode and

technology .

TCO for integrated IWT and RFT

services . Finding the optimal split

between the transport modes at

the intersection of the respective

TCO curves . Source : KLU

Meet and greet the experts :

Andres Rey - Associate Researcher CSGL

Dr Cristiam Gil Senior Researcher CSGL

Prof Dr Gordon Wilmsmeier Director

CSGL

Hapag Lloyd Center for Shipping and

Global Logistics CSGL

KLU Kühne Logistics University

www klu org

Find out more and

read our TCO

summary

Explore and build

your own TCO with

our online tool

TCO for IWT vessels and trucks with different technologies

( at 500 km dist . ) . Source : KLU