Border infrastructure and customs regulations in inland waterway transport

Due to poor navigation conditions on domestic waterways, the activities of inland shipping companies in Poland are largely concentrated on providing transport services for Polish foreign trade.

These transports are carried out on the Poland – Western Europe route (mainly Germany, as well as Benelux countries, France, and Switzerland). Inland shipping in the service of international transport with neighboring countries in the east is not optimally utilized due to the lack of waterway development.

A certain upward trend in the share of inland waterway transport in foreign trade, within total transport, was observed in the 1980s. However, this was the result of a general collapse of domestic transport during that period. A clear tendency for the strengthening of the position of Polish inland shipping on the international shipping market appeared in the 1990s. Compared to 1989, the volume of inland waterway transport in international communication increased from 1.5 million tons to 3.8 million tons in 1996 and 5.4 million tons in 2000. Consequently, during the studied period, the share of this type of transport in total transport increased from 17.3% in 1989 to 42.2% in 1996 and 52% in 2000 (Fig. 1).

Factors determining the efficiency of inland waterway transport in serving foreign trade include: the technical condition of connections between the domestic waterway network and the international network, the number of border crossings, and regulations regarding border control.