bremenports enables reliable inland shipping in Bremen by offering excellent nautical conditions, short waiting periods, high availability of berths, efficient billing processes and information that is always up to date. On behalf of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, we manage 23 berths, inclusive of the relevant shore power supply facilities. This means the ships can switch off their generators when at berth, so that the shipowners save diesel and the air remains cleaner.
We sincerely appreciate feedback from our customers. In a survey conducted amongst barge operators, they awarded good marks overall to the ports of Bremen, in particular with regard to the services available at the ports. We are, of course, working hard to remedy the areas that did not score so well. We want, for instance, to make the entire notification, mooring and berthing processes even more convenient and also faster.
The German government has also long since realised that inland shipping has great potential to offer as a transport mode with a relatively good carbon footprint. Carrying a ton of cargo for one kilometre by barge causes only roughly a third of the emissions that would arise from conventional truck transport.
But even so, the full potential of inland shipping has not yet been developed. Digitisation is still in its infancy in this sector and we plan to accelerate that process with projects such as Digital Outer Weser. Networked traffic control, for instance, could save fuel, emissions and time by avoiding encounters at bottlenecks, avoiding the need for expensive braking manoeuvres and making long waiting periods a rare occurrence.
We are convinced that inland shipping can play a special role in the transport mix along logistics chains. We are committed to giving it that role.