The intent of the Schneider CD was to act as a shuttle between the nearest road and the heavy gun batteries. The French had a number of heavy 4-wheel drive trucks, such as the Renault EG and Latil TAR, which could deliver guns and ammunition to a roadhead nearest to the gun positions but these could not traverse the churned up landscape of the front. The Schneider CD was a fairly straightforward adaptation of the Schneider tank chassis with a driving position at the front of the vehicle, a superstructure containing the fuel tanks and radiator and a flat wooden deck at the rear.