A boat traffic policy safeguarding both business and historic canals.
- Amsterdam’s iconic canals are packed: commercial, private and municipal vessels are vying for space. Only unprecedented policy would alleviate the mounting pressure.
- We sourced and analysed data to substantiate the city’s policy proposal, mapping measures to outcomes to make a strong legal case.
- We navigated political players’ varying objectives to forge consensus, and allayed commercial pushback with a win-win proposal.
- With good old data-crunching, business nouse and political tact, we got the client’s policy a green light.
Beloved by locals and tourists, Amsterdam’s canals are packed with boats. Increasing traffic from commercial tours, private vessels and municipal maintenance boats has caused congestion and nuisance. Locals’ lives are pressurised, with noise and pollution problematic. With no policy precedent to turn to, a solution had to be developed from scratch.
Lodewijk Westerling, strategy consultant at The Strategy Office, steered the client team from research through to regulatory approval with a commercially, politically and legally watertight strategy.
Challenge.
Finding balance was essential in this project — but by no means easy. Canal tour operators, private businesses and recreational boaters would all want their say. Space on the city’s waterways also needed to be reserved for growing numbers of heavy transport vessels. Waste collection and construction material transport are being shifted (back) onto the water, to better preserve the city’s canalside roads.
Local government wields the power to establish mandatory regulations — with objective justification, naturally. Measures must be proportionate, effective and cause minimal site damage. Livelihoods must be safeguarded, and the canals’ UNESCO heritage status protected.
To make things more interesting, canal regulations are notorious for pushback. Commercial operators have a well-earned reputation for court challenges — but Lodewijk had a strong case of his own to make for his municipality client.
Approach.
Collaborating closely with the local authority’s team, Lodewijk assessed the research already gathered and initiated studies to plug the gaps. So far, so consultant.
But the working relationship Lodewijk shaped with his municipality counterparts wasn’t the distanced treatment you might typically expect. He got stuck in from the research stage through to defending the policy in court — sat there advising the presenting team live via WhatsApp.
All in a day’s work at The Strategy Office.
Floating ideas
There’s nothing like a dip into reality to make sense of a strategy conundrum. (Funny how rare it is amongst the large firms.) Lodewijk had teams out on the canals counting passing boats, for a simple, effective and reasonably resourced research stage. Analysis of this baseline data would substantiate the municipality’s eventual policy proposal, mapping measures to feasible outcomes for a strong legal case.
Lodewijk also advised on installing sensors to measure activity on the canals, scoping locations and data-analysis strategies. These were mainly to log boat traffic, but also to measure noise levels (although this is still experimental and far harder to gauge).
Eyes always on the viability of the end-goal legal case, Lodewijk advised the municipality team on their wider research strategy. They needed to collect and analyse data from various stakeholders; a standard task, yes. But fail to bring in all the needed nuances for query scope and stringency, and the responses would be next to useless. Lodewijk made sure the client got the answers needed before the surveys even went out.
Political plain sailing
Finding middle ground between local authority and private commercial interests is often a thorny task. Add sustainability targets, and you’ve got a party. Of course, the members of these camps rarely agree amongst themselves to begin with — that would be too easy.
Unfazed, Lodewijk navigated political players’ varying objectives to forge consensus. The “not-invented-here” mindset (familiar in the private sector, too) was a particularly tricky current to overcome. Getting everyone on board, on time ensured the new policy proposal would have the momentum and ownership to withstand being contested in court.
A pushback-proof business case
Allaying commercial pushback was, pleasingly, a win-win scenario. Canal tour operators raised concerns that traffic-limiting regulations would drain viability from their business models. Diving into their self-reported accounts, Lodewijk showed this wasn’t the case. Their books proved the policies proposed would allow for healthy business continuity.
This combination of analytical data-crunching, business nouse and political tact effectively disarmed the client’s main opponents. Just as importantly, it gave the municipal policymakers confidence that they weren’t asking for the impossible, nor harming the local economy.
Sustainability also came into the mix: cleaning up transport on the canals is a local government priority. Lodewijk outlined and completed (no takeover by underlings here) research on feasible routes forward. Handily, his expertise in electric transport primed his take to resonate: he’s previously started an e-scooter supply company (hands-on battery re-engineering included), worked on electric road transport for major courier TNT Express, and advised KLM on sustainable fuelling.
For this project, his trusted analysis showed stakeholders that electric boats and seamless daily operations aren’t mutually exclusive.
Impact.
A policy green light
The bulk of the municipality’s new policy has been court-approved: commercial licences to operate canal tours will be time-limited, with periodic re-applications required. Any further legal bodies are set to give it the green light, too.
Lodewijk stayed on hand for analysis and advice at every stage, from research to legal go-ahead. That’s how we work at The Strategy Office — no bobbing in and out with never-ending handovers. We find results tend to flow better that way.