Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Road freight data transmission consists of three datasets with quarterly periodicity:
Vehicle related variables dataset for a sample of road good motor vehicles contain, among others, indication about the type and age of the vehicle, the economic activity of the owner of the vehicle, the total kilometres loaded or empty.
Journey related variables dataset which contain, among other indications about weight of goods, regions of loading and unloading, distance driven, and tonne-kilometres performed during a journey.
Goods related variables dataset which contain among others the type of goods transported and their weight, the distance travelled as well as the regions of loading and unloading.
3.2. Classification system
Statistics on carriage of goods by road apply the following statistical classifications:
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).
3.3. Coverage - sector
Road Freight Transport vehicles registrered in the reporting member state.
A goods road motor vehicle is any single road transport vehicle (lorry), or combination of road vehicles, namely road train (lorry with trailer) or articulated vehicle (road tractor with semi-trailer), designed to carry goods on a road.
Cross-trade is international road transport between two different countries performed by a road motor vehicle registered in a third country.
National transport is Road transport between two places (a place of loading and a place of unloading) located in the same country by a vehicle registered in that country.
International transport is Road transport between two places (a place of loading and a place of unloading) in two different countries (one is the reporting country) and cabotage by road. It may involve transit through one or more additional country or countries.
Transit is any loaded or empty road motor vehicle, which enters and leaves a country at different points by whatever means of transport, provided the total journey within the country is by road and that there is no loading or unloading in the country.
Goods carried by road are any goods moved by goods vehicle.
Place of loading/unloading of a goods road vehicle on another mode of transport:
Place of loading (of the goods road transport vehicle on another mode of transport): The place of loading is the first place where the goods road motor vehicle was loaded on to another mode of transport (usually a ship or a rail wagon).
Place of unloading (of the goods road transport vehicle from another mode of transport): The place of unloading is the last place where the goods road motor vehicle was unloaded from another mode of transport (usually a ship or a rail wagon).
3.5. Statistical 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).
3.6. Statistical population
As the total number of statistical units (most commonly vehicles) is very large, sample surveys are carried out to collect information.
For the time being, this is a census of the vehicles but surveyed only for one reference week. Every quarter 7 weeks are selected.
Every week of reference 1/28th of the registered vehicles are surveyed.
3.7. Reference area
The data provided are goods vehicles registered in the declaring country uniquely.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data are available since 1999 on the EUROSTAT website.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
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 road data are collected on a quarterly basis and are reported to Eurostat five months after the end of the reference period.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Eurostat submits annually semi-aggregated data (data exchange tables, see Commission Regulation (EU) No 202/2010 amending the Commission Regulation (EC) 6/2003) back to the reporting countries so that they can compile the total road freight transport on their national territories, including the operations by national hauliers and also those of all other reporting countries.
These data exchange tables include more detailed breakdowns than the publicly available tables. They also include, for each value, the information on the number of observations that the estimates are based on. In this way, the reporting countries can estimate the reliability of results that they aggregate from the data exchange tables.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
National level:
Results are only published as agregated data. Micro data are not identifiable, observations are not published.
European level:
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
There is no special treatment. Microdata are already anonymized.
8.1. Release calendar
The transmission of the data shall take place within 5 months of the end of each quarterly period of observation.
8.2. Release calendar access
There is no official national release calendar.
8.3. Release policy - user access
As soon as the data for the 4 quarters of a year are validated, the annual statistics are published on our web portal.
It is planned to publish the quarterly results in a near future.
Annual dissemination
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Currently there are only regular annual releases of tables on our web portal about road freight transport statistics.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
There is no other publication other than tables on our website. (see 10.3)
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Statistics about Road Freight Transports can be found in this Excel file.
Results are needed by Eurostat according to the European Regulation. There is no further information available of the relevance of this indicator for users, nevertheless, the results are regularly published and commented by media and professional stakeholders.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available for this specific indicator, but the user satisfaction for Statec's products is very high according to a user's survey.
12.3. Completeness
Eurostat's requirements in terms of time series are fulfilled.
Small goods vehicles (with loading capacity below 3.5 tonnes) are not covered.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Road freight data come from sample surveys. The overall sampling error of the estimates is less than 5% standard percentage error.
13.2. Sampling error
Not available.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not available.
14.1. Timeliness
Data are normally updated once per quarter.
If new annual data (all four quarters of a calendar year) have become available, the annual datasets are also updated together with the quarterly datasets.
14.2. Punctuality
Road freight data are transmitted to Eurostat within 5 months after the end of the reference period, as specified in the Regulation (EU) 70//2012.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The definitions applied are the same as fixed in Regulation (EU) No 70/2012.
15.2. Comparability - over time
The definitions applied are the same as fixed in Regulation (EU) No 70/2012.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
No comparison are performed since the nature of the road freight market differs considerable from that of other transport modes.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Not applicable.
It represents for NSI +- 4 000 hours /year.
The burden for the enterprises is estimated to +- 4 000 hours /year.
17.1. Data revision - policy
There is no official national revision policy. But Statec takes into account late data arrivals and data corrections.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
Sampling register used for the survey
Name of register: Parc des véhicules automoteurs.
Name of organisation who maintains the register: Centre des technologies de l’information de l’Etat (CTIE).
Frequency of update: Daily update, but monthly transmission of an extract to STATEC.
Frequency of access to draw the samples: At present, the samples are drawn four times a year, approxiamately one month before the start of each quarter.
Arrangements for accessing the register: The first days of each month, the CTIE is transmitting an extract of the register to STATEC.
Information obtained from the register: In the data files transmitted by the CTIE, there are technical specifications for all kind of automotive vehicles. In 2025, STATEC plans to use stratified samples.
Procedure for reminders: In general, the questionnaires have to be returned to STATEC within 5 days after the end of the reference week. At present, the enterprises receive, if necessary, 1-3 reminders per questionnaire. A scheduled system, sending out automatically reminders according to intervals to be fixed by STATEC is implemented. In general, the response rate is good.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
The survey is carried out throughout the entire year.
18.3. Data collection
Sampling methodology
Statistical unit: Tractive vehicle.
Types of units excluded: According to the EU road freight transport statistics regulation, STATEC excludes:
Lorries < 3.5 tonnes load capacity;
goods road transport vehicles whose authorised weight or dimensions exceed the limits normally permitted in the Member States concerned;
agricultural vehicles, military vehicles and vehicles belonging to central or local public administrations, vehicles not destined to the transport of goods, with the exception of goods road transport vehicles belonging to public undertakings, and in particular railway undertakings. In addition, several types of vehicles are also excluded, such as those used for breakdown services.
Time unit: 1 week.
Time unit of quarter 1 of 2024 included in the survey: 7 weeks.
Stratification: There is no stratification. The same weighting factor is used for all vehicles for the whole quarter.
Recording of weight of goods: Enterprises should indicate the weight of transported goods without packaging.
Recording of journey data sent to Eurostat: Single stop, multi stop and collection /delivery: It is only allowed to indicate the carriage of one commodity per journey. If there are two or more commodities transported, the most important in terms of weight must be indicated.
Estimation of maximum permissible laden weight: In the data files on the automotive vehicles, the maximum permissible laden weight on the different axes is indicated. The enterprises have to indicate the number of axle of the vehicle, the trailer or the semi-trailer. These indications allow calculating the total maximum permissible laden weight.
Calculation of weighting factors:
weighting factor = (w*v)/(r+e)
w = number of calendar weeks in a quarter
v = quarterly average number of tractive vehicles in the register used for goods carriage
r = quarterly recorded questionnaires
e = quarterly unused questionnaires (no activity or unusable indications)
Additional (optional) variables collected compared to the legal requirements:
Environmental impact-related variables:
Statec does not collect any information on the type of fuel used or the fuel consumption. Nevertheless, in the vehicle register there is a variable on the type of fuel used: in 2014, more than 98 % of the transport vehicles use diesel.
A1. Vehicle-related variables:
possibility of using vehicles for combined transport (NO);
vehicle operator’s NACE Rev. 2 at class level (four-digit level) (YES);
vehicle empty kilometres (YES).
A2. Journey-related variables:
axle configuration according to the nomenclature defined in the Regulation on road transport statistics (NO);
place of loading, if any, of the road transport vehicle on another means of transport (NO);
place of unloading, if any, of the road transport vehicle from another means of transport (NO);
degree of loading: situation ‘fully loaded’ (procedure 2) or ‘not fully loaded’ (procedure 1) of the goods road transport vehicle during the journey in question, in terms of maximum volume of space used during the journey (procedure 0 = by convention for unladen journeys) (NO).
A3. Goods-related variables:
type of freight (Cargo types) as defined in the Regulation (NO).
18.4. Data validation
From Eurostat :
Since 1999, micro-data from the reporting countries have to be submitted according to Commission Regulation 2163/2001. The data are then checked and validated by EUROSTAT (verification of many different codes used (NUTS 3, numeric or alphabetic variables) correctness of linked questionnaires in the different dataset, etc…). Detected errors are then reported back to the data sender with the request for correction, this is an iterative process until at least 99.5% of all data records are validated and loaded in the database.
18.5. Data compilation
Data compilation is automatized internally.
18.6. Adjustment
Road freight data are not seasonally adjusted.
No comments.
Road freight data transmission consists of three datasets with quarterly periodicity:
Vehicle related variables dataset for a sample of road good motor vehicles contain, among others, indication about the type and age of the vehicle, the economic activity of the owner of the vehicle, the total kilometres loaded or empty.
Journey related variables dataset which contain, among other indications about weight of goods, regions of loading and unloading, distance driven, and tonne-kilometres performed during a journey.
Goods related variables dataset which contain among others the type of goods transported and their weight, the distance travelled as well as the regions of loading and unloading.
A goods road motor vehicle is any single road transport vehicle (lorry), or combination of road vehicles, namely road train (lorry with trailer) or articulated vehicle (road tractor with semi-trailer), designed to carry goods on a road.
Cross-trade is international road transport between two different countries performed by a road motor vehicle registered in a third country.
National transport is Road transport between two places (a place of loading and a place of unloading) located in the same country by a vehicle registered in that country.
International transport is Road transport between two places (a place of loading and a place of unloading) in two different countries (one is the reporting country) and cabotage by road. It may involve transit through one or more additional country or countries.
Transit is any loaded or empty road motor vehicle, which enters and leaves a country at different points by whatever means of transport, provided the total journey within the country is by road and that there is no loading or unloading in the country.
Goods carried by road are any goods moved by goods vehicle.
Place of loading/unloading of a goods road vehicle on another mode of transport:
Place of loading (of the goods road transport vehicle on another mode of transport): The place of loading is the first place where the goods road motor vehicle was loaded on to another mode of transport (usually a ship or a rail wagon).
Place of unloading (of the goods road transport vehicle from another mode of transport): The place of unloading is the last place where the goods road motor vehicle was unloaded from another mode of transport (usually a ship or a rail wagon).
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).
As the total number of statistical units (most commonly vehicles) is very large, sample surveys are carried out to collect information.
For the time being, this is a census of the vehicles but surveyed only for one reference week. Every quarter 7 weeks are selected.
Every week of reference 1/28th of the registered vehicles are surveyed.
The data provided are goods vehicles registered in the declaring country uniquely.
The road data are collected on a quarterly basis and are reported to Eurostat five months after the end of the reference period.
Road freight data come from sample surveys. The overall sampling error of the estimates is less than 5% standard percentage error.
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)).
Data compilation is automatized internally.
Sampling register used for the survey
Name of register: Parc des véhicules automoteurs.
Name of organisation who maintains the register: Centre des technologies de l’information de l’Etat (CTIE).
Frequency of update: Daily update, but monthly transmission of an extract to STATEC.
Frequency of access to draw the samples: At present, the samples are drawn four times a year, approxiamately one month before the start of each quarter.
Arrangements for accessing the register: The first days of each month, the CTIE is transmitting an extract of the register to STATEC.
Information obtained from the register: In the data files transmitted by the CTIE, there are technical specifications for all kind of automotive vehicles. In 2025, STATEC plans to use stratified samples.
Procedure for reminders: In general, the questionnaires have to be returned to STATEC within 5 days after the end of the reference week. At present, the enterprises receive, if necessary, 1-3 reminders per questionnaire. A scheduled system, sending out automatically reminders according to intervals to be fixed by STATEC is implemented. In general, the response rate is good.
Annual dissemination
Data are normally updated once per quarter.
If new annual data (all four quarters of a calendar year) have become available, the annual datasets are also updated together with the quarterly datasets.
The definitions applied are the same as fixed in Regulation (EU) No 70/2012.
The definitions applied are the same as fixed in Regulation (EU) No 70/2012.
