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Road freight transport measurement (road_go)

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National Reference Metadata in Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS)

Compiling agency: CSB (Centrālā statistikas Pārvalde (Central Statistical Bureau)).

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Road freight data collection consists of three datasets with quarterly periodicity:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Goods related variables dataset which contain among others the type of goods transported and their weight and distance travelled, regions of loading and unloading.

1 August 2025

The main concepts used in Road freight statistics are the following, more details can be found in the Road freight transport methodology manual

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.
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 and cabotage by road. It may involve transit through one or more additional country or countries.
Cross trade is International road transport between two different countries performed by a road motor vehicle registered in a third country.
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.

Data on freight traffic are collected from legal entities and natural persons who are owners or holders of lorries and road tractors that have gone through vehicle inspection at the moment of the survey and may be legally used. The survey does not include special vehicles – fire-fighter motor transport, motor cranes, platform lorries, road repair transport etc. – as well as lorries that are more than 25 years old and/or have a carrying capacity of less than 3.5 t; starting with 2017, special concrete mixers are included in the survey from the list of special lorries.

The data provided are goods vehicles registered in Latvia.

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 survey. According to Regulation 642/2004 Article 2 the overall sampling error of the estimates of the total and the national transport should be within 7% standard percentage error (SPE).

Regarding bias, underreporting is clearly an issue that has been identified in different benchmarking exercises.

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 one 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) by Eurostat on the basis of the reported weighting factors to obtain quarterly data. Annual data are summed up from the quarterly data.

Aggregates are calculated from generalized data. The summaries drawn up in accordance with Regulation 70/2012 on statistical reports on road transport and in accordance with paragraph 24.2 of the Official Statistics Program 2023-2025.

There are two types of summaries:

  1. Summaries of key figures (tonnes and tkm by type of transport) are provided in 7 weeks after the reference quarter.
  2. Annual summary data by different breakdowns are prepared in 12-13 weeks following the reference year.

Sampling registers used for the survey

Name of register:

  1. Register of road transport vehicles.
  2. Register of vehicles.

Name of organisation who maintains the register:

  1. Road Traffic Safety Directorate - Register of vehicles.
  2. Road Transport Administration - Register of road transport vehicles.

Frequency of update:

Monthly.

Frequency of access to draw the samples:

Once a month.

Arrangements for accessing the register:

CSB has access to extract information from the Register of vehicles. This part of the Register contains information on transport vehicles which owned by natural or legal persons and which at the moment of sample formation had passed the yearly technical inspection and could be legally operated.

CSB has access to extract information from the Register of road transport vehicles. This part of the Register contains information on transport vehicles, which has license to carry out national and international transport for hire or reward.

Information obtained from the register:

  1. Made; model; registration number; vehicle ID number; legal (enterprise) or private person; enterprise VAT number or personal code; enterprise actual NACE code; self-weight, load capacity; road tractor or not; body type; year of production; name of owner (legal i.e. enterprise or private person); address of owner; mark about leasing and address of leaseholder.
  2. Authorisation to carry out transport for dangerous goods.
  3. Authorisation to carry out national and international transport for hire or reward.

Used for stratification:

  • carrying capacity.
  • allowed to carry out commercial shipments.
  • allowed to carry out international shipments.
  • has ADR.
  • year of production of vehicle.
  • name of owner or holder.

Procedure for reminders:

First reminder: 19 days after the survey week another copy of the questionnaire is sent to the respondent.

Second reminder: After 4 weeks, another reminder letter is sent to the respondent.

The response rate for 2024:

  • Q1 71.1 %;
  • Q2 68.5 %;
  • Q3 63.5 %;
  • Q4 62.2 %.

The tables consist of annual and quarterly data. Road transport statistics (News releases and Statistics Database) is published quarterly 60 days (two months) after the reference quarter.

Quarterly data are updated quarterly all reference year.

Annual data (Statistics Database) is published 150 days (five months) after the reference year.

First results available 60 days after the end of the reference quarter. At the same time previous quarter data are revised.

No geographical comparability problems. The survey covers the whole country.

Comparable time series are available from 1997.