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The rising price of fuel coupled with increased congestion and environmental pressures is providing the catalyst for the move from road to water. Shipping and barge companies have reported unprecedented levels of interest in their services, receiving more requests to transport goods over the last 18 months than they have over the last 20 years.

A number of supermarket chains, including Tesco and Sainsbury's have switched much of their freight. Tesco now transports its new world wine by sea and water to be bottled at its plant at Irlam on the Manchester ship canal; a scheme that has had the effect of removing 50 lorries from the roads each week. Tesco say it has plans to expand the operation to a level which will save approximately 3,500 lorry journeys by the end of the year.

Sainsbury's is considering shipping goods up the Thames from its stores in south-east London to its west London stores. And Cemex, a manufacturer of cement and other building materials, is now moving over 270,000 tonnes of sand and gravel along the Severn to Ryall in Worcestershire, which it estimates is saving 34,000 lorry movements a year.

While concerns have been raised about the potential of the waterways being frustrated by a lack of planning and government commitment, their pull is changing the habits of even the most hardened hauliers. Eddie Stobart, famous for its recognisable lorries and one of Britain's largest road-haulage firms, has invested in a port on the Manchester ship canal and plans to expand its waterway routes.

Julie Gaskell, a spokeswoman for the firm, said: "It might seem odd that one of the goals of Britain's biggest branded truck companies is to get trucks off the road, but that is exactly what we are trying to do," She added: "It seems ironic that we are now looking to revive more traditional modes of transport, but new pressures such as congestion, rising fuel prices and the environment mean that old methods are becoming viable again."

It is not just Britain's haulage firms that are returning to a bygone era however. French shipping company Compaignie de Transport Maritime a la Voile (CTMV) has recently begun using a 108 year old British schooner to ship wine from Brest in Brittany to Dublin.

The `Kathleen and May`, a wooden triple-masted sailing ship saved from the scrap heap in the 1960's by a British boat enthusiast, travels at a speed of around 8 knots, only half that of a conventional merchant ship, but is powered solely by the wind and therefore saves on fuel costs and provides an environmentally sustainable alternative for eco-conscious companies.

Frederic Albert, a former journalist who founded CTMV this year, said: "Originally this was intended as an ecological project enabling producers to put a label on their goods saying that it had been moved by a clean means of transport… but it could become economically interesting given the high price of fuel.

"We are 5 per cent more expensive than standard merchant shipping companies at the moment. But we are going to build our own ships and when they enter service, we will be cheaper." Albert's initiative comes as the French Association of Shipowners estimate that wind-powered vessels could capture 0.5% of the world shipping market, which is currently responsible for transporting 90% of the world’s traded goods.

Estimates suggest that road based freight transport in the UK now accounts for between 5-6% of CO2 emissions from all sectors (approximately 31 million tonnes per year), and figures from the International Maritime Organisation show that carbon pollution from the world's merchant fleet is now in excess of 1.1 billion tonnes per year.