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In the majority of countries in the world, managing the operations responsible for the delivery of products and goods is rapidly becoming a large-scale problem. The rising levels of traffic congestion, an increasing demand for goods, negative environmental impacts, inefficiencies of current systems, and politics: these all contribute to making cargo distribution a daunting task in any city. Especially when the quality of life of the population starts being threatened, clever strategies have to be proposed in order to improve the efficiency of cargo transportation and to make sure that both the city and the people are not greatly affected.
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Now consider the beautiful water-locked city of Venice. The problems related to the transportation of goods are magnified by the city’s distinct transportation system, which results from Venice’s isolated geography and unique infrastructure. As John Berendt describes in his book, "The City of the Falling Angels," the key to understanding Venice is to realize that the city moves with the rhythm of the water, the canals and the tides. The dynamics of Venetian transport, cargo transport in particular, are also dependent on this “rhythm”.
As time progresses and major cities around the globe strive for modernization and better urban planning, however, Venice struggles to adapt its ancient infrastructure to the necessities of the life in the 21st century. The introduction of motorized boats on its canals during the late 1940s resulted in an increase in travel and trade, and currently more than a thousand motor cargo boats are needed to supply all deliveries of food, equipment and retail goods on the islands. However, the introduction of motorboats has in turn led to the introduction of a number of new social, economic, and environmental problems for Venice. The Venetians, who were used to seeing their traditional romantic gondolas on the waters of the serene canals, now notice a drastic change from tranquility to chaos.
As if the visual impact was not enough, the propellers used by these motorboats generate wakes known as the moto ondoso, which are literally eroding the city and its foundations. In waterways like small, intertwining Venetian canals, these wakes invariably contact the walls violently, largely contributing to their erosion and deterioration and permanently damaging the foundations of nearby buildings. This accelerates the process by which the City of Water may become the City Under Water.
Another evident issue presently faced by the city of Venice is the intense traffic on the waters of the canals. The excessive transit of boats is one of the main causes of noise and air pollution, and drastically increases the effects of the moto ondoso. The cargo transportation system, responsible for 30% of all movements on the Venetian waters besides public transportation, must receive special attention from the authorities, and must be one of the main focuses of any strategy for traffic reduction.
The traffic problem has also a deep impact on the activities of cargo transportation, for which agility and efficacy are essential. For the cargo workers, congested traffic means extended traveling from one location to the next and limited maneuvering space for docking, turning, and passing along many canals.
As with most of Venice’s problems, conventional solutions adopted in other places cannot be used. Whereas often times cities can add a new lane to a freeway in order to deal with congestion, Venice’s infrastructure is limited by the city’s physical conditions, and although the canals can and have been deepened to allow larger boats to pass, they cannot be widened. Also, whereas in most cities traffic lights can regulate and optimize the use of the streets, this is unfeasible for a city dependent on boats and canals for its transport. In addition to those unique problems, Venice faces the same problems that other cities have with rush hour traffic, holiday traffic influx, and crazy taxi drivers.
The difficulty in bringing infrastructural changes into effect in Venice makes it even more important that the traffic on the canals, and more specifically the traffic of cargo boats, be organized and optimized, in order to reduce their detrimental consequences to the city. As observed by the 2001 Cargo IQP team, on a given day, one single boat owner spent about nine and a half hours completing his deliveries throughout the city, which included over 165 minutes of driving and 55 minutes of waiting for available dock space. During the same day, a boat from another company that owns a small fleet spent three and half hours total for his deliveries, which included 69 minutes for travel time and 2 minutes waiting for dock space. Each boat was filled with approximately the same number of boxes. Since these boats are paid solely based on the number of boxes they carry, one can easily see how cooperation among boat drivers may reduce the wasted time among deliveries, making the system more efficient and more profitable for its workers, and reducing the traffic levels on Venetian canals.
The size of the boat is another aspect that must be taken into consideration when looking for a more efficient cargo transportation system. Large boats should be restricted to large deliveries along the wider canals and small boats must use the fact that they can travel through inner canals even when the tide is high. The 1997 Cargo IQP team observed that, during high tides, cargo boats are sometimes forced to back up the entire length of a canal due to a low-lying bridge across it.
There are a number of different boat sizes, but they are not used according to their capacity. In addition to that, although there are a number of different sizes of boats, the delivery is still not organized by capacity. Scalo Fluviale, the main docking area for cargo loading in Venice, runs on a first come first serve basis for boats, so often large boats are leaving the docks half full and small boats are leaving dangerously over laden with goods.
The Current Cargo Transportation System
Presently, an intricate network of operations enables the inhabitants of Venice, as well as the crowd of tourists that pack its small calli, to buy all manner of products from stores. One can find everything from basic day-to-day necessities, to toys made in China, to electronics made in the United States. Even though the system as it is lacks in organization and has severe efficiency drawbacks, it is remarkable in many ways and it fulfills its main purpose of delivering merchandise all over the island.
Most of the products sold in the centro storico are initially ordered from distributors located on the mainland. After reaching the island by truck, they are loaded into hundreds of specialized cargo boats, which will then navigate the inner canals of Venice towards the docks nearest to the store or restaurant responsible for the order. The final stage in the cargo delivery process is the unloading of the goods at the docks and their transportation to their respective final destinations via carts. This process is more thoroughly explained in the next sections.
Upstream acquisition
The first step in acquiring the necessary goods to maintain any business in Venice is the upstream acquisition, or the purchase of products from distributers and wholesalers from the mainland. Usually, a single distributer will be responsible for a few different types of products that generally fall into the same category, such as beverages, can products, or items that require refrigeration.
Currently, each store or restaurant places a separate order and makes separate deals with each distributor they do business with. This means that there is no collaboration among store owners who need the same types of products. Although it seems like it would be more convenient for each businessman to deal with their own needs, when each business makes individual orders it is inevitable that a large number of distributors must be involved. This in turn requires a larger number of trucks to arrive in Venice every day and a larger number of cargo boats navigating the canals.
But the motivation behind the creation of partnerships and associations among commercial establishments does not come only from the public affairs point of view. When store and shop owners purchase in bulk and reduce the number of wholesalers involved, it not only allows for less traffic on the canals but most likely a reduction in costs as well. In this sense, this improvement is beneficial to all the parties concerned with freight transportation in Venice, especially the final consumer, who actually “pays” a high price for the lack of optimization of the system.
Cargo loading at Scalo Fluviale
Scalo Fluviale is situated near the entrance to the city, on a group of manmade islands called Tronchetto. At Scalo Fluviale, after 5 o’clock in the morning, cargo boats of different types and sizes dock along a 200m concrete wall in order to receive the freight that comes in the trucks. In most cases, there already is an arrangement between the firm responsible for the land transportation and the boat drivers who will finish the delivery, thus facilitating the operations at the loading area.
Most of the food products and general commercial items that arrive in Venice are transported to Scalo Fluviale for their transition from trucks to boats. However, a few specific groups – those that deliver dairy, produce, and fish – have the advantage of owning warehouses with docking areas at the Tronchetto islands. Moreover, the companies that administrate these businesses also own licensed boats which redistribute the merchandise to Venice and therefore are not part of the operations on the public loading area of Scalo Fluviale.
Even though those product-specific warehouses serve to reduce the number of boats at Scalo Fluviale, the boat drivers who still use its docks for the remaining products, or the general cargo, face a very complicated situation. Due to the lack of docking space for all the boats that need to be loaded at the same time, multiple “rows” of boats have to be formed. The worker responsible for loading the boats that are not next to the platform needs to carry boxes across several boats, which can be both dangerous and time consuming. At peak time, which is usually around 7:45AM, up to six boats can be seen side by side being loaded all at once!
Another issue of concern, as pointed out by the boat drivers themselves when interviewed by the 2001 IQP team, is the safety at the docking area. For example, the signs that require all workers to wear hard hats are completely ignored, while large cargo is moved overhead by the several cranes that are located along the loading platform. Those cranes are used to move heavier cargo onto boats, including propane tanks, lumber, and large bundles of metal rods used in construction. Also the absence of any pier-like structure slows down the rotation of boats, which are often forced to “parallel park”. This makes the loading of boxes and packets much more difficult due to the height difference between the boat and docking area.
Nonetheless, many of these problems faced by boat drivers at Scalo Fluviale may be close to an end. As of 2007, the construction of a new warehouse for general cargo has begun, sponsored by the municipality. The project intends to solve some of these problems by providing a brand new storage and loading area and the opportunity for a new organization plan to be outlined, improving both the work conditions of the cargo men and the efficiency of the cargo delivery system.
Distribution to Final Destinations
The pressing issue of excessive traffic on the canals causes a severe efficiency drawback for the boat drivers. Trying to make their way through a large crowd of gondolas, private boats, and taxi boats, cargo boat drivers see their business greatly hindered, since it depends on the agility and efficacy of their trips. But many other things, besides congested canals, act as obstacles for the cargo transportation. On a normal day, a cargo delivery boat may face canal maintenances, dredging, poor dock conditions and bridges with low underpass clearance due to high tides, which many times force drivers to find alternate routes and thus increase travel times.
Intersecting delivery schedules and overlapping itineraries between cargo boats can also be a problem when docking for deliveries. Once the boat driver manages to work out the difficulties of the route and arrives at the specified location, he sometimes finds other boats parked at the dock. The driver is then forced to wait for the departure of the docked boat in order to be able to unload and deliver his cargo. In addition to that, as he waits, the boat driver must dodge the continuous flow of traffic, or the canal will easily become congested.
To ease congestion, some canals are strictly one-way while other canals make use of traffic lights. These canals are usually too narrow to allow the passage of more than one boat at a time and may become nearly impassable when boats are parked along the sides of the canals. Although all of the docks throughout the city restrict the time allowed for docking to 15 minutes in order to minimize the time spent waiting for dock space, boats usually take much longer and consequently increase waiting times for other boats.
The unloading of the cargo from the boat to land also poses some serious problems to the cargo driver due to the condition of the docks. While some of the Venetian docks are well maintained, others are completely unusable. The 2007 Urban Maintenance IQP conducted surveys to assess the condition of the docks. The study concluded that 68% of the docks were usable, 23% had difficult ratings and the remaining 9% had critical flaws that prevented deliveries there.
When we look into how the boat drivers spend their time, we can clearly see that the current cargo system has plenty of room for improvement. Travelling between delivery points spread out through the entire city takes up approximately 50% of the cargo drivers’ time. Heavy traffic, many stops, and chaos on the canals make for longer days and extended travel time for them. Cargo boat drivers presently unload the goods at any usable dock and then transport them from the dock to the business through the use of a cart. This takes up a considerable amount of time. Having the drivers make their own deliveries also contributes to congestion at the docks. While the cargo boat driver is delivering goods, the boat is taking up space at the dock preventing other cargo boats from using it. As proposed by the 2001 Cargo IQP team, a possible solution would be to have cargo workers waiting on land, being solely responsible for the secondary transportation, i.e. transporting the products from the docks to their final destination.
Currently, cargo boats make their deliveries by product. This means that a boat is loaded with one or a few specific products. The boat will then stop at many different islands to make deliveries of a few pieces of cargo before moving on to another island. For example, a cargo boat loaded with milk may make a stop at San Marco, then move on to Castello, and finally end at Cannaregio to deliver more crates of milk. Later on that day, another boat may stop at San Marco, Castello and Cannaregio to deliver casings of wine. Even later that day another boat may stop at the same three places to deliver rice.
In the current system, these three boats may take three hours to finish their deliveries to the three sestieri, visiting one sestiere at a time. However, if there was collaboration among these boat drivers, the goods could be rearranged in a way that each boat would only need to make one trip to each sestiere. This would cause the travel time for each boat to be reduced to one hour. This type of delivery is called delivery by zones or by destination. All the cargo would still be delivered, traffic would be reduced, and time as well as money would be saved due to shorter routes.
One of the less obvious benefits of implementing a centralized delivery by destination is that of flexibility for the cargo workers themselves. Most of the proponents of a new cargo system are concerned with its impact on the environment, traffic, infrastructure, and economics; however one must not overlook the impact on the people most closely dependent on this system – the cargo workers.
Cargo delivery is a highly competitive business, even before taking into account the forty illegally licensed cargo boats competing with the licensed Venetians (discussed in more detail later). Usually, the 385 licensed cargo boats and their crew are not able to take vacations or even sick days unless they have someone to cover their deliveries. This is due to the fact that one day of not delivering can easily result in the loss of a client and in turn the loss of business and income.
If delivery is organized by destination in the future, and it is both centralized and better organized, this could result in less negative competition among the cargo boatmen. With a centralized warehouse that divides deliveries according to company size and capabilities and then organizes the zones and routes equally, the cargo workers will be able to take sick days and vacations without having to worry about another company taking over their delivery. They will also have a more static income based on capacity and time worked, rather than the dynamic one they currently face based on number of deliveries and how full their boats are every day. Cargo companies will make their money based on the number of boats they bring to the system, their condition and capacity, number of workers, net worth, and capabilities and will in turn positively affect the involved workers.
Proposed Plans and Current Issues
After many years of discussions and proposals for a reengineering of the Venetian cargo transportation system, a first step has finally been taken towards this purpose. In 2007, the city of Venice started the construction of a new warehouse on the Tronchetto area, with the objective of providing the general cargo with a safer and more efficient loading and docking area. The creation of such a warehouse will hopefully expedite the separation and loading of goods, as it has been proposed by many studies, including the 2001 Cargo IQP.
One important question is whether the construction of the warehouse will be followed by a subsequent renovation of the cargo distribution methods. Ideally, the system of delivery should be rerouted so that instead of each boat taking a specific good, the boat would contain all goods for a store or group of stores in one location. This in turn allows the boat to travel to one location, and decreases the number of stops for each delivery. If each boat has a certain destination it will also decrease the amount of waiting and traffic in local areas. This would allow for more effective delivery times, and most likely would result in the benefit of reduced costs by streamlining the delivery process.
According to the plans, the city of Venice will purchase the new warehouse as an empty foundation box with front docks for the loading of the boats. The costs of the construction will be covered by the 30 million Euros that will be funded by the city for the project. Most of this cost was incurred because the waters were too shallow and had to be dredged and the sediment needed correct removal. Another problem that was faced during construction was the underground pipes that had to be avoided by means of the new construction site being built over them. The construction is being carried out by a private company, who has received one third of the 30 million Euro budget, and will receive the rest of it if the warehouse is completed according to the schedule, in July 2008. To complement the role of the warehouse, Insula will be constructing an overnight docking area for the cargo transportation boats, also located in the Tronchetto area. This will hopefully accelerate and help the organization of the operations of cargo loading. The incurred costs for this docking area are currently estimated between 7.5 and 10 million Euros.
Manuelle Medoro, manager of the water boat traffic in Venice, is currently the government official overseeing the construction of the new warehouse. According to him, the warehouse will be extremely beneficial to the current cargo workers by providing them with a safe work environment, and by allowing them to better organize themselves. The cooperation among boat drivers can lead to quicker delivery times, an efficiency increase by using correctly sized boats, and the possibility of a division of profits, which in turn increases job security and allows boat drivers to take vacations and sick days without the fear of losing their clients.
Although the implementation of a new plan for the cargo transportation system is still in the future, it is already known how the city will lease out the storage space. The Comune in actuality will own the warehouse but they have a plan of action to rent it to the licensed Venetian cargo boatmen so that they will have the opportunity to unify their efforts under one roof and hopefully one system. The current idea mentioned by Medoro is that the city, once having purchased the completed building, will devise means to regulate its use. The idea is to put the ownership of the warehouse up for bid. Only licensed transporters will be able to bid on the ownership (in means of renting the building for use) of the warehouse. Since coalitions are expected to be formed for the bidding process, it is a way to try to assemble the cargo transportation drivers into a common group, without much government involvement. In the cargo transportation system scenario there are presently three large consortiums that will most likely be competing for the right to administrate the activities at the new warehouse. These companies are the CTVR, the Artisans guild, and the Liga Cooperativa.
Formed in the year 2000, the Consorzio Transportatori Veneziani Riuniti (CTVR) was the company that sponsored the study and analysis of the cargo transportation system in Venice by the 2001 IQP. The 110 boats in the CTVR represent a large portion of the total boat licenses conceded by the city of Venice. The CTVR is very important because it has given unity to individuals in the cargo transportation system by creating strength in numbers and acting similarly to a worker’s union. The CTVR’s role in the future concerning the new warehouse is a prevalent one.
Luigino Vianello, who is a member and past president of the CTVR, and also a local cargo boat driver, has been involved with many of the changes to the cargo transportation system. During a conversation with Luigino, he expressed that although there is a hope of implementation, some of the workers are skeptical of the specific changes. When posed with the question on his feelings about the new warehouse and its consequences, he explained that, even thought many cargo workers like him are really hoping for changes to the system, he fears that the completion of the warehouse will not be accompanied by any other improvements to the system.
However, Luigino asserts that, at the present moment, the Venetian cargo boat drivers have more pressing issues to worry about than the construction of the warehouse. One of them is the existence about 40 illegal boats transporting cargo on Venetian waters. Their licenses are usually obtained at Chioggia, Mira and Jesolo, and only allow them to transport cargo to Venice. However, those boat drivers perform all kinds of cargo transportation within Venice, creating extra competition for the legal workers.
Another loophole to the system is caused by specified cargo boats. For example, the Coca Cola transporters are only supposed to transport the Coca Cola products to the islands, but some of these cargo boats will transport other goods on the side.