In message , at 17:00:26 on Fri, 1 Jan 2016,
" remarked:

Are any canals being used or starting to find use as commercial
waterways for the shipment of goods?

The coal traffic in East Yorkshire (eg Calder and Hebble etc) may have
ceased by now, but the Manchester Ship Canal still has commercial
traffic.

Inland, the speed and carrying capacity of a narrowboat has been pretty
much superseded by road transport (itself superseding rail), unless the
goods you refer to are holidaymakers.
--
Roland Perry