Road freight transport by distance class and type of transport (t, tkm, vehicle-km, basic transport operations) - annual data
methods, notes and classification
DATA_DESCR Eurostat collects road transport statistics by two means: 1. Data on infrastructure, transport equipment, enterprises, economic performance, employment, traffic, aggregated data on transport of passengers and goods as well as data on accidents are collected using the Common Questionnaire of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Eurostat and the International Transport Forumá(ITF, in the framework of OECD). The method of the Common Questionnaire data collection is presented in a separate document. 2. Data on carriage of goods by road,áusing heavy goods vehicles, are based on a continuum of legal acts: 2.1 Data collection on carriage of goods by road until 1998 (included) was based on Directives 78/546/EEC and 89/462/EEC and covered tonnes and tonne-kilometres only. 2.2 Data since the reference period 1999 are derived from micro-data collected in the framework of Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of the European parliament and of the council on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road, a recast ofCouncil Regulation (EC) 1172/98 which has replaced the previous Directives. The figures areáaggregatedáon the basis ofásample surveys carried out by the reporting countries. The data cover tonnes, tonne-kilometres, vehicle-kilometres and numbers of journeys. These metadata pages only refer to road freight statistics based on the European Union's legal acts (point 2 above)áand, in particular, to the data for reference years 1999 and after (2.2).
CLASS_SYSTEM Statistics on carriage of goods by roadáapply the following statistical classifications: type of goods: NST/R until 2007 (included) and NST 2007 thereafter; regional coding of loading and unloading places: NUTS; economic activity of the owner of the vehicle (optional): NACE; type of dangerous goods (when applicable): ADR; type of cargo (optional): UN recommendation 21. The type of goods transported by road was collected, until reference year 2007 (included),áaccording to the 24 groups of goods following the "Standard Goods Classification for Transport Statistics/Revised (NST/R )", (see the RAMON classification server on Eurostat's web site).áStatistics were published at this detailed level - or aggregated to 10 chapters. From 2008 onwards, goodsáhave beenáclassified according to "Standard goods classification for transport statistics 2007, NST 2007". The principles of the two classificationsáare different: NST/R was based on physical characteristics of goods, whereas the production process where the goods are coming from is the basis ofáNST 2007. In this way, NST 2007 belongs to the same family of classifications as CPA ("Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the European Economic Community, 2008 version"). The regional coding is done in conformity with European legislation: "NUTS Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics"á(see also RAMON/NUTS). The Directivesádata before 1999 were collected at level 2 of NUTS; since 1999áthe Council Regulation 1172/98 road freight data have been collected at level 3 of NUTS. Simplified codingáwas allowedáin Articles 5 º 4 of Regulation 1172/98 until the end of the reference year 2007. Before this, full regional coding was obligatory for national transport only; for international transport a transitional period allowed the regional coding of the places of loading and unloading with country codes only. Full regional coding of international journeysáhas beenáapplied for the whole EEA areaáfrom the beginning of 2008 (reference year). Economic activity class of the vehicle owner is an optional variable. Data were collected according to NACE Rev. 1 until the end of 2007. From the beginning of 2008 onwards, the economic activityáhas beenáclassified according to NACE Rev. 2 (see RAMON "Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (NACE Rev. 2)"). Type of dangerous goods is a mandatory variable, but it is reported only for those goods that fall into this category. The classification is based on "European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road", Chapter 2.1,áas published in Annex E of Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98. Directive 2008/64/EC makes reference to ADR as regards the transport of dangerous goods by road. The optional variable type of cargo follows the Classification of Cargo Types of UNECE (United Nations, Economic Commission for Europe - codes for types of cargo, packages and packaging materials, Recommendation 21 adopted by the Working Party on Facilitation of International Trade Procedures, Geneva, March 1986).
STAT_CONC_DEF Road freight data collection consists of three datasets for each quarter from each reporting country: Vehicle information for a sample of road good motor vehicles Journey information of loaded and empty (optional) journeys by the vehicles in the sample during the observation period (most often one week) Goods information on loadsátransported during the reported journeys. The quantity and performance of road freight transport are collected in tonnes, tonne-kilometres, vehicle-kilometres and number of journeys. Tonne-kilometres are both collected (in journey and goods datasets)áand calculated (by multiplying the weight of goods by the distance travelled for each goods operation). For the variables collected please refer to Commission Regulation (EC) 2163/2001. Road freight transport statistics are reported by Member States for vehicles registered in their country. On the basis of variables contained in the micro-data (reporting country, country of loading and country of unloading of a journey) five types of operations are derived: National transport International transport - goods loaded in the reporting country International transport - goods unloaded in the reporting country International transport - cross-trade International transport - cabotage Each reporting country reports all activities of a road motor vehicle inside and outside its national territory. There is thus no risk of double counting at European level. For all definitions please refer to the "Road freight transport methodology - Reference manual for the implementation of Council Regulation 1172/98"áChapter 10: Definition of variables, classifications and codes" on Eurostat's website.á National characteristics of surveys are presented in the publication "Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in member states and candidate countries" on Eurostat's website.á
STAT_UNIT The reporting unit for road freight transport statistics is the goods road transport vehicle or the local unit (a site of a company, as identified in the national business register).ááPlease have a look atáthe methodology used ináeach reporting country during the different reporting years: 2005 edition 2008 edition. 2011 edition
STAT_POP As the total number of statistical units (most commonlyávehicles) in mostáreporting countriesáis very large, sample surveys are carried out to collect information.áA representative selectionáis drawnáfrom theápopulation (see "Road freight transport methodology - Reference manual for the implementation of Council Regulation 1172/98" Part A) in such a way thatáthe desired attributes can be estimated,áwithin the limits ofáaápre-defined precision, according to standard statistical theory. "Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in member states and candidate countries" includes summary tables with basic information on sampling, response rates, register quality and precision of results of the surveys in the reportingácountries.
REF_AREA The data cover European Union, EEA andácandidate countries. The time coverage follows the enlargement of the European Union. Data collected under the Directives 78/546/EEC and 89/462/EEC cover mainly EU-15 countries. New Member States provided generally data starting from the date of their accession to the EU; therefore historic time seriesáare notácomplete for all countries. The data based on Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 cover today all EU-27 (except Malta exempted), Norway, Liechtenstein (since 2005), Switzerland (since 2008) and Croatia (since 2008) - Iceland is exempted. The coverage is shown in the 'Road freight data received an loaded in production_ddmmyyyy', updated regularly on CIRCA. (If the link above does not work , copy the followingáURL into the address bar of your browser https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/9eea25b6-ebf2-4961-aed3-6ab27fb95b74).
BASE_PER Not applicable
UNIT_MEASURE Data are collected in tonnes, tonne-kilometres, vehicle-kilometres and in number of journeys (journey data) or in number of basic transport operations, BTO (goods related data). The time unit is mostly one week (Germany, one of the biggest reporting countries, collects data during half a week), the time units covered in a year are mostly 52 weeks (see methodologies used in reporting countries); the submitted micro-data are extrapolated (grossed up)áby Eurostat on the basis of the reported weighting factors to obtain quarterly data. Annual data are summed up from the quarterly data. The "three-layer structure" of data (vehicle data, journey data and goods data) allowsácalculatingásome vehicle data from the journey data andásome journey data from goods related data. The data aggregated from different layers do not always match perfectly, due to different reporting practices. The data published on basic transport operations (BTO)ámay not be reliable in all dissemination tables: User feedback suggests that, for multi-stop journeys representing less than 10% of all journeys, the number of basic transport operations is underestimated by a factor of 2-4. The reported values are expressed in plain quantities, without the calculation of indices. Data are not seasonally adjusted.
Methods 
Explanatory Notes 
Variables