Time to barge in?

The West Midlands has a large canal network - much of it still navigable, or able to be made so for little cost. So I was very interested in the news that Tesco are starting to re-use the Manchester Ship Canal for transporting goods in that neck of the woods. Whenever the question of heavy lorries on the roads round here is raised, I am among those who ask why more use is not made of the canals. If the transportation of all non-perishable goods were to be transferred onto the canals, it would make a massive reduction in the number of HGVs on the roads. The main problem seems to be that it would not fit in with the "just in time" philosophy used by most businesses these days - but perhaps the current obsession with the need to be greener will provide the necessary impetus to look again at this old-fashioned method of getting from A to B.