Short sea shipping: Lessons for or from Australia?

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been a substantial volume of research on short sea shipping and related national maritime transport regulation. In spite of significant support for the policy of growing the volume of short sea shipping in Europe, and the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation within NAFTA in 2003, there has not been the level of adoption by cargo interests or shipping lines expected. In Australia, where the regulatory environment is somewhat different from Europe or North America, the industry is more focused on the bulk sector and the Rudd Government is contemplating an agenda of maritime reform. This situation presents an opportunity to build an understanding of why, how and whether short sea shipping works, and, in particular, what lessons from the Australian experience might apply to the Canadian and/or North American context and vice versa. This paper builds on two separate but linked streams of research. On one hand, it will review the research conducted in North America. Large-scale studies have been undertaken for Transport Canada over the past five years, and several studies have also been conducted in the U.S. On the other, it reviews the studies undertaken in Australia, where short sea shipping received considerable attention from both consultants and academics, and there has been a recent government investigation into the coastal shipping industry. In its examination of research done to date, this paper explores the lessons from these studies by answering four research questions. It draws preliminary conclusions about the role of the regulatory environment in promoting or deterring the development of land transport– competitive short sea services and about which research agenda gaps remain to be filled. The paper does not focus on bulk shipping; the key emphasis is on what governments need to consider if they seek to induce switching from land modes, like truck or rail, to coastal shipping in order to revitalise the domestic industry or improve GHG-efficiency in the transport sector or both.