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Switzerland Flag of Switzerland

Communications:  Pre-Arrival
Local Info:  Time | Holidays
General Information for Switzerland
Geo-political:
Capital City: Bern. 46° 55.00′ N, 007° 28.00′ E
Nationality: (noun) Swiss (singular and plural), (adjective) Swiss.
Population: 8,403,994 (July 2020).
Communications:
International Direct Dial Code: 41.
Number of Internal Airports: 63 (2013).
Major Languages Spoken: German (or Swiss German; official), French (official), Italian (official), English, Portuguese, Albanian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Romansh (official) and others.
Economy:
Currency: 1 Swiss Franc (CHF) of 100 Centimes.
Exchange Rates:  (as of October 2020)
USD 1.00 = CHF 0.92
CHF 1.00 = USD 1.09
Exchange rates under licence from XE.com
Main Industries: Machinery, chemicals, watches, textiles, precision instruments, tourism, banking, insurance and pharmaceuticals.
Agricultural Products: Grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs and dairy products.
Imports: Machinery, chemicals, vehicles, metals, agricultural products and textiles.
Exports: Machinery, chemicals, metals, watches and agricultural products.
Commodities: Crude: Imports 57,400 bbl/d. Products: Production 61,550 bbl/d. Exports 7,345 bbl/d. Imports 165,100 bbl/d. LNG: Imports 3,681,000,000 cu.m..
Environment:
Coastline Extent: 0 km. (landlocked).
Climate: Temperate, but varies with altitude; cold, cloudy, rainy/snowy winters; cool to warm, cloudy, humid summers with occasional showers.
Natural Resources: Hydropower potential, timber and salt.
Natural Hazards: Avalanches, landslides and flash floods.
Terrain: Mostly mountains (Alps in south, Jura in northwest) with a central plateau of rolling hills, plains, and large lakes.
Average Temperatures: 
Month High Low
January 3° C -3° C
June 23° C 12° C
September 20° C 8° C
PRE-ARRIVAL INFORMATION:  River Information System:  The EuRIS platform is the result of a cooperation between 13 European countries. The system gathers national information and services in one user portal. Participating countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.
EuRIS provides skippers, vessel owners or logistic operators with relevant information for planning and undertaking voyages on main European waterways. Users can register a vessel and follow its route, receive messages when vessel passes certain points on the network and request information on vessels, voyages and cargo.
EuRIS presents all waterway and traffic related information on handy maps or in tables, with:
  1. a real-time traffic image
  2. position information of authorized vessels
  3. Notices to Skippers
  4. actual water levels, discharges, bridge clearance, water depth
  5. information about the fairways, bridges, locks, berths, terminals
  6. the operating times of locks and bridges
  7. voyage planner
  8. travel duration and expected arrival times.
Access to EuRIS is available at www.eurisportal.eu
Furthermore, details of national systems can also be found at the following websites:
Country Website
Austria www.doris.bmk.gv.at
Belgium www.visuris.be
voies-hydrauliques.wallonie.be
www.vts-scheldt.net
Bulgaria www.bulris.bg
Croatia vodniputovi.hr
Czech Republic www.lavdis.cz
France www.vnf.fr
Germany www.elwis.de
Hungary www.pannonris.hu
Netherlands www.vaarweginformatie.nl
Poland www.rzgw.szczecin.pl
Romania www.roris.ro
Serbia nts.risserbia.rs
Slovakia nts.slovris.sk
Switzerland www.port-of-switzerland.ch
www.elwis.de
Reporting:  Electronic reporting enables electronic data interchange for reporting purposes between vessels and competent authorities in inland navigation. The goal is to avoid multiple reporting of skippers to competent authorities and to limit the provision of the same data related to a voyage to different authorities and/or commercial parties, and thus to reduce the administrative workload for skippers and inland waterway managers.
International standards and procedures for the interchange of electronic messages are in force. Public authorities and other parties concerned (ship owners, skippers, shippers, terminals, ports) shall exchange data in conformity with these standards and rules.
Electronic reporting is supported in many countries, until recently mainly for supporting traffic management. EuRIS now enables the orderly sharing of information with both public and private parties (always with consent of the ship owner).
Various platforms are also available to waterway users to electronically fulfil reporting requirements of the authorities: 
  1. BICS: www.bics.nl Enables electronic reporting via the BICS application, widely applicable in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, on the Rhine and the Mosel.
  2. CEERIS: www.ceeris.eu Central & Eastern European Reporting Information System (CEERIS) covers most of the Danube and the Czech Elbe, enabling electronic reporting in the CEERIS partner countries Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.
  3. eRIBa: eriba-platform.be Allows users to report digitally more easily on all waterways in Flanders and on the Western Scheldt (including the Dutch side of the North Sea Port).
  4. VELI: www.vnf.fr/veli/Login.html Allows for reporting before commencing any journey on all French waterways.
Note:  In order to use CEERIS for reporting, either a successfully claimed vessel (privacy class 9 with valid ENI) or granted reporting rights for a vessel in EuRIS are required.
Inland ECDIS:  Making available reliable and up-to-date electronic charts which meet European standards. ECDIS contributes to the safety and efficiency of inland navigation and therefore the protection of the environment. Moreover, it reduces the workload of the skipper compared to traditional navigation and information methods.
Notices to Skippers:  To enable an automatic translation of the most important contents of messages in all languages of the participating countries, with a harmonised structure of data to enable integration of messages in the voyage planning systems. Also a standard for height of tide information will be made available. This information will be made available to the inland barge community, among other things by use of web applications.
Also see `` Duisburg-Ruhrort''.
HOLIDAYS:  1 January (New Year's Day); 2 January (Berchtold's Day); Easter; Easter Monday; Ascension; Whit Monday; 1 August (Swiss National Day); 3rd Sunday in September; 25 December (Christmas Day); 26 December (St Stephen's Day).