The particularly pronounced drought throughout Germany, which is being attributed to climate change, is leading to increasingly sinking water levels on important inland waterways. The historically low water levels on the Rhine and Danube, in particular, are hindering inland navigation and forcing companies to shift transport from the waterways to overland. In addition to the German federal states along the Rhine, other states such as Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Bremen, and Schleswig-Holstein also agreed to this measure. However, there was no comprehensive agreement across all federal states, which raises the question of how transit states should be treated.