That truck driver you flipped off? Let me tell you his story.
Trucking something 1000 miles is silly. One large canal boat can transport about 70 truckloads (4x3x6 containers). Average speed over 1000 miles is the same since they don't stop for breaks. Works great in Northern Europe. You still need trucks for the fine grained distribution of course, but over time all large companies make sure they are located on a canal.<p>Digging canals is very expensive of course but they don't hurt the environment nearly as much as (rail)roads and it's a text book way to get the economy going. Many of the canals in Europe were actually dug during the depression of the last century when there was lots of unemployment.