Page 37: of Marine News Magazine (November 2026)

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Tech Feature

Propulsion

Downtime, Delays, and their

Effects Across Inland Waterways

Image courtesy Regal Rexnord

The High Cost of Downtime on

America’s Inland Waterways

By Bob Lennon, Regal Rexnord merica’s inland waterway systems are one of the Why Downtime Matters on Inland Waterways nation’s most valuable transportation resources, Inevitably, every marine operator will face challenges moving bulk commodities like grain, fertilizer, pe- brought on by the natural equipment lifecycle, but inland

Atroleum products, aggregates, chemicals, and other waterway operators face these challenges with a unique set materials throughout the country. Spanning from stretches of operational pressures. Inland towboats function with- such as the Mississippi River to the Intercoastal Waterway, in a dense interconnected transportation network where pushboats and towboats play a vital role in keeping these schedules are in? uenced heavily by a range of external fac- supply chains moving forward without fail. tors including river conditions, lock and dam availability,

For vessel operators in these environments, uptime is an terminal operations, and seasonal commodity demand. necessity that cannot be compromised. Revenue is gener- As a result, the impact of a vessel outage can extend far ated when vessels are moving cargo and not when they are beyond the vessel itself. When a pushboat experiences an tied up awaiting repairs. While equipment wear is inevi- unexpected failure, the consequences can quickly trickle table, many costly downtime events can be shortened or down throughout other areas of the supply chain. This avoided altogether with disciplined maintenance practices, can materialize through barge movements being delayed, proactive inspections, and a long-term approach to life- loading and unloading schedules at terminals being affect- cycle management efforts. ed, and deliveries getting postponed causing operators to

And for inland operators, one of the most effective ways struggle while attempting to adjust schedules and deploy to protect uptime is not necessarily through major capital available assets to ? ll in these gaps. investments, but through supporting thoughtful mainte- Additionally, the ? nancial implications often reach well nance planning and routine inspections of critical rotating beyond the cost of the repair itself. Even when a vessel is out equipment before small issues have a chance to grow into of service, operators typically continue to carry operating ex- more signi? cant failure points. penses in the form of labor, insurance, ? nancing, and opera- www.marinelink.com MN 37|