Abstract Autonomous shipping is expected to be gradually adopted in the coming years. While many scientific studies in the field have focused on technological development, recent research has started to explore the effects of this innovation on the cargo transportation industry. This study investigates the economic dynamics that can drive logistics entrepreneurs to adopt teleoperated barges, a specific type of smart shipping. By conducting a case study of cargo transportation between two companies using roundtrips with trucks and barges, the study evaluates a modal shift to intermodal transport and looks into the conditions that are affected if barge teleoperation is implemented. A major conclusion of the study is that the transport distance, the equipment size, and the mix of captain-only tasks versus all the sets of crew tasks affect the expected economic gains that are obtained as a result of implementing smart shipping. In this case, a conventional modal shift to waterborne transport is already economically attractive. When opting to operate a smaller barge, teleoperation becomes preferable when a shore-control captain can only focus on exclusive sailing tasks and when more than one ship is monitored simultaneously.