The transportation industry faces the challenge of developing an efficient and effective complement to the existing road system. An alternative strategy is to revitalise coastal shipping such as short sea shipping (SSS) to alleviate traffic congestion and enhance economic development by maintaining freight flow efficiency. The paper aims to examine the road freight market and how the distortion of this market impacts on the development of alternative transport services such as SSS. We examine the problem from a European perspective and in so doing we analyse the various strategies of the European Commission. We conclude that in spite of the efforts that the European Commission is making to promote SSS, this mode of transport is not considered to be especially attractive to freight handlers, in part because they are almost totally unaware of it. The market distortion in the road market needs to be corrected by the implementation of incentives mechanisms for freight handlers in order to shift from road to SSS.