The appearance of potato starch and the straw carton industries provided new cargoes. In the fall, transport of agricultural products from farms to factories (so called, "Campagnefahrt") was enormous. A large portion of these shipments did not go through the shipping exchanges. Many companies owned their own ships that were piloted by so-called "company shippers." Turf was also shipped primarily in the fall.
Some skippers bought themselves a cargo of turf and tried to sell it in the winter. These became known as "Selfselling Turfskippers".

In the absence of sufficient wind or in routes that were blocked by too many bridges and locks, the shipper had only two options: tow the ship himself or have it towed from the banks. By the 17th. century, the canals were patrolled by "Shipstowers," towing people that rented their horses out to the barge owners. Mostly, these individuals towed only a defined distance between two locks. At the end of his stretch, he would transfer the towing to another tower.

Many of these towers had a bad reputation as heavy drinkers and fist fights between the towers and/or the shippers themselves were common. In 1903 in an attempt to minimize these aggravations, a "Shipstower-Levy" was introduced.