Inland navigation water routes within Europe are more than 37,000 kilometers long. That fact stands in contrast to rail freight traffic high capacity reserves and the share of inland waterway transportation, which amounts to just 6% of the total inland transport burden within the European Union. In light of an increasing cross-border freight traffic demand and its resulting congestion and environmental issues - a modal shift towards inter-modal transport offers an interesting opportunity to counteract that development. Despite that, inter-modal waterway transportation is often seen as an unattractively priced transportation alternative, as increased settlement costs express themselves in higher end prices. Consequently, price is a key decision factor for favoring a mode of transportation. For this reason my aim is, through study of the pricing system, to analyze in what ways the price system could be arranged in order to enhance the attractiveness of inter-modal inland waterway transportation as well as to remain competitive on the long term. Due to the service nature of inter-modal transportation there are especially dynamic differential pricing systems to be particularly suited, which take the customer's needs into account and determine differential prices based on order time and execution of service time. The result is a pricing system that ensures, besides consideration of the demand, cost-recovery and increased attractiveness for inland waterway services. In summary it appears that the implementation of an appropriate pricing system can have far reaching benefits and therefore should be given a high priority in practice.(author's abstract) / Series: Schriftenreihe des Instituts für Transportwirtschaft und Logistik - Verkehr

This master thesis focuses on a systems comparison of intermodal transport concerning road and inland waterways. Moreover, the master thesis discusses and analyses the potential and importance of inland waterways for the inland transportation of containers from European sea ports to European markets. By doing so, the aim of the thesis was to highlight the parameters of the inland waterway system as well as cost parameters for inland ships carrying containers. The master thesis was compiled in order to answer the following questions properly: Can inland ships provide market-oriented and competitive solutions for the transportation of containers from sea ports to European markets and which cost parameters have to be taken into account for inland ships carrying containers? How does a river information system (RIS) support inland ships by making it more attractive for shippers and forwarders? Regarding transportation of containers from sea ports to inland, which parameters of the inland waterway system are of significance and determining? Applying intelligent information systems and planning techniques combined with a growing network of intermodal terminals, inland ships offer innovative and competitive solutions by being an integrated transport system, providing tailor-made and door-todoor logistics services. Considering that road and rail transport are already suffering from chronic congestion, inland waterways' key competitiveness lies in its congestionfree network. However, the infrastructure of the inland waterway network does only meet regionally the requirements for an efficient and seamless container transport and therefore hampers the potential of the inland waterway network as a whole. (author's abstract) / Series: Schriftenreihe des Instituts für Transportwirtschaft und Logistik - Verkehr