The world economic and financial crisis and recession have marked materially all of the global economic, social and political trends and movements. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the crisis has had a strong impact on Croatia as well, both on an economic and social level. It has had wide-ranging implications for different segments in economy and business. In these circumstances, the companies are searching for alternative strategies to gain competitive advantage and maintain/increase their market share. In the process, they often reduce prices, which alternatively results in a profit/margin erosion. In turn, this strategy favors the companies that purchase these products/services enabling them to achieve significant savings. Terrestrial transport companies were among the first companies to bear the consequences of the recession in Croatia, as this is the sector which is directly impacted by oscillations in production and generally market turbulences. Economic crisis resulted in negative economic trends, drop in production and retail consumption. All this affected unfavorably transportation sector. This industry suffered a significant drop in prices and a material margin erosion. The companies that could not adapt to new market circumstances were even driven out of business. This thesis is tackling current problems faced by transportation sector in the period of crisis. It is pointing to the market of European Union and the creation of transport clusters as a potential strategy to their business survival.