The challenge faced by the Transport Logistics team at CNH Industrial, was the transportation of its Case IH and New Holland Agriculture combine harvesters from the Company’s hub in Zeebrugge, Belgium, to destinations throughout Europe. Combine harvesters are by far the largest piece of machinery at a farmer’s disposal weighing in at up to an impressive 24,500 kilos which makes delivering them from the factory to field by road an exceptionally challenging task.

To solve this very modern problem, the CNH Industrial logistics team took inspiration from one of the oldest means of transport – water. The River Danube, at 2,780 km is the second longest river in Europe, flows through 10 countries from the Black Forest in Germany to the Black Sea, in the southeast corner of the continent and has been used for shipping freight for centuries. Founded in 1829 The Danube River Steamboat Shipping Company grew to become the largest river shipping company in the world with some 200 steamboat ships and 1,000 cargo boats. The advent and subsequent expansion of the railway meant that river transport declined in importance and popularity. The team at CNH Industrial recognized the potential in this once widely used means of transport for the shipping of its combines