Sandro Suppa and Vincent van der Wijk of Bühler, Switzerland describe the how transporting grain by barge is an
ecological and cost-efficient alternative to railway and truck haulage.
Since
time immemorial, ships have been used to deliver bulk goods over long
distances, using the river current as a natural force to carry them downstream
or yoking draft animals for upstream transport. Although trucks and trains have
taken up a large part of this task in the modern age, barges are still a viable
alternative for many goods. A barge carrying one ton of cargo can travel five
times as far on five liters of diesel as a truck with the same freight – 500 km
compared to the truck’s 100 km of range overland. A ship carrying 3,000 tons of
goods is equivalent to 50 railway cars or 100 trucks.
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