Roll-out of the concept

Bearing in mind the sector’s challenges and learning from the pilots’ results, the main objective of the Watertruck+ project is the gradual introduction of the concept on a large scale. This roll-out will be based on two focal points:

• The concept’s economic parameters in terms of investment, payload and cost of operations, as derived from the pilot phase;
• Bridging the investment gap.

This second point is key, as the current market structure is fragmented. Smaller, family-owned businesses fail to convince traditional financing channels to provide the means to invest in new equipment. On the other hand, major investors or guarantee mechanisms seem attainable yet are too large to deal with traditional SMEs. Watertruck+ aims to provide a platform, namely a financial toolbox, to bring these two together.

Combining economics and finance, Watertruck+’s goal is to encourage the take-up of the concept by the market, while being an enabler in the compilation of viable business cases for the investment in, and deployment of, a large scale of Watertrucks in Europe, securing IWT for smaller European waterways.