How we move a combine harvester from Germany to Tashkent
How do you get a 30-tonne agricultural machine from a German farm to Uzbekistan? Certainly not with a single truck. And that is exactly what we want to write about today, because we believe that many people in our industry underestimate how many steps are involved in a transport like this.
Let's start at the beginning. Oversized and heavy transports are no walk in the park even within Europe: permits, axle load calculations, escort vehicles, route surveys. But as soon as a consignment is to go via the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea to Central Asia, a completely different level of complexity is added. No standard form will help here; what is needed is a route that actually makes sense, with every handover point carefully thought through.
Let's take an example of how we implement this time and again: a combine harvester that is collected in Germany and is to end up in Tashkent.
First leg: Germany to Burgas in Bulgaria, classically by low loader on the road. So far, so familiar; everyone who works in heavy transport knows this. Permits in every transit country, route planning around bridges and tunnels with height restrictions – the usual.
From Burgas it gets more interesting. The low loader continues by ship to Batumi in Georgia, with the tractor unit uncoupled. That means: the semi-trailer travels on the ferry, the tractor stays behind or is organised separately. It sounds like a detail, but it saves space and costs on the crossing, and it is exactly such small things that add up to a noticeable difference in the calculation on a transport across several countries.
In Batumi comes the next break in the chain: the load is placed on a rail platform and transported onwards by train to Baku. From Georgia onwards the rail gauge is different from that in Central Europe anyway; this is one of the reasons why rail is often more sensible here than the road through the mountain regions of the Caucasus. For an oversized piece of agricultural machinery, this is frequently the more practicable way than any mountain pass with height restrictions and tight bends.
From Baku it then goes across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan, again by ship. And this is where, in our view, it gets most exciting, because this is where most schedules collapse. The crossing itself often takes no longer than about seventeen hours. The problem is not the voyage itself but the wait for a free berth beforehand. One to two days of waiting are considered normal; in periods of high demand the wait can also take a week. Anyone who plans with a fixed date and no buffer here will sooner or later be disappointed.
The last leg from Turkmenbashi to Tashkent then runs by rail again, without a further break of gauge, which at least makes things a little more relaxed at this point.
Five legs, three modes of transport, four national borders. And at every single handover point the documentation on weight and dimensions has to travel along cleanly, otherwise in the worst case the load stands still until someone submits the right papers. This is exactly the point at which we keep advising other freight forwarders not to rely on individual carriers for each leg, but to coordinate the entire chain from a single source. Otherwise the customer ends up paying the price for a gap between two modes of transport.
Then there is the permit side, which should not be underestimated. Every country along this route has its own rules for axle loads, escort vehicles and lead times for special permits, and these sometimes differ considerably. What is sufficient in Bulgaria is far from sufficient in Azerbaijan, and vice versa. Anyone who only clarifies this shortly before departure loses valuable days that could easily be saved with a little lead time.
One might ask why anyone puts themselves through this at all when there is also a direct road connection through the Caucasus. The answer is simple: for a normal pallet load this may work, but with a wide, high and heavy piece of agricultural machinery you quickly run into tunnel heights, curve radii and bridge loads on the mountain roads between Georgia and Azerbaijan that are simply not designed for oversized cargo. Hence the detour via rail, and hence the detour via two ferries at all. It looks cumbersome on the map, but in practice it is often the only way that works without special dismantling of the machine.
What we honestly like about this route: it works. For consignments like this we rely on low loaders, mega trailers and platform trailers, depending on what the load requires. From around 25 tonnes upwards and up to 4.5 metres in width and 18 metres in length, this is everyday business for us, not the exception. But what we have to say just as honestly: this route is not for short-notice enquiries. Anyone who wants their combine harvester in Tashkent in three weeks, with no room for manoeuvre, had better talk to us right away instead of breaking their teeth on the Caspian ferry themselves.
We sometimes wonder why this topic gets so little attention in the industry. Container chains via the classic ports are chewed over in every second trade article, but oversized transports with multiple modal changes to Central Asia? Hardly a word. Yet this is exactly the area where experience really makes the difference. Anyone can book a pallet from A to B. But getting a 30-tonne colossus across five legs and four borders without a document missing somewhere or a ferry being missed is craftsmanship.
Have you ever handled an oversized transport across the Caucasus yourself, or have you so far tended to avoid this route because it seems too complicated at first glance? We would be interested to hear what you experienced – feel free to leave a comment below this article. Such reports from practice are always more valuable to us than any theory at the desk.
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