Transport analysis

Statistics department

Trafikanalys

Rosenlundsgatan 54

SE-118 63 Stockholm

Inland waterway transport statistics provides information on the volume and performance of freight transport on EU inland waterway network. They are reported on the basis of the "territoriality principle" which means that each country reports the loading, unloading and movements of goods that take place on its national territory, irrespective of country of origins of undertakings or place of first loading and final unloading. Data for IWW goods transport is stored for each ship call and is saved continuously.

The full data provision obligation includes:

• annually: goods transport by type of goods, by nationality of vessels and by type of vessel as well as container transport by type of goods;
• quarterly: goods and container transport by nationality of vessels.

In addition, the legislation foresees voluntary annual data on vessel traffic. Voluntary annual data on the transport of dangerous goods and the number of accidents has been agreed with the reporting countries.

In summary, the statistics transmitted to Eurostat on inland waterway transport:

• Transport of goods (annual and quarterly mandatory data provision);
• Vessel traffic (annual voluntary data provision);
• Transport of dangerous goods (annual voluntary data provision)
• Number of accidents (annual voluntary data provision).

Sweden follows the classifications system set up in the Reference Manual on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics.

Country and NUTS codes

Territorial units like reporting country and regions for loading/unloading are coded according to NUTS classification for those units covered by NUTS Regulation and to ISO 3166 for the rest (e.g. territorial units outside EU). The used version of NUTS always corresponds to the version in use and no conversion to previous version is required. For instance, NUTS 2006 is used for 2008 to 2011 data, NUTS 2010 for 2012 to 2014 data, NUTS 2013 for 2015 to 2017 and NUTS 2016 for 2018 until next NUTS Regulation.

The level of detail is either NUTS0 – for reporting country – or NUTS2 (basic regions, 4 digits) – for regions. When using ISO 3166 and 4-digits level coding is required (e.g. for regions outside EU), the two-digit ISO code followed by “ZZ” is used.

Goods classification

Prior to 2007, the types of goods reported as being transported by inland waterways were those defined by NST/R (Standard Goods for Transport Statistics). In 2007 only, the type of goods has been reported according either to the NST-2000 classification or to the NST/R classification. From 2008 onwards, only the NST2007 classification is valid as set out in Commission Regulation 1304/2007 amending Regulation 1365/2006 with respect to the establishment of NST2007 as the unique classification for transported goods in certain transport modes.

Dangerous goods are classified according to the European Agreement Concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways (ADN). The classes are the following:

Class      Denomination

1             Explosive substances and articles
2             Gases
3             Flammable liquids
4.1          Flammable solids, self-reactive substances and solid desensitised explosives
4.2          Substances liable to spontaneous combustion
4.3          Substances which, in contact with water, emit flammable gases
5.1          Oxidising substances
5.2          Organic peroxides
6.1          Toxic substances
6.2          Infectious substances
7             Radioactive material
8             Corrosive substances
9             Miscellaneous dangerous substances and articles

Transport-commercial IWW goods transport solely within homogenous zones for dedicated IWW transport, national IWW zones decided by the EU commission.

The definitions covering the main concepts used in this domain are included in Article 1 and Annex II to Regulation 425/2007. The main definitions are as follows:

Navigable inland waterway: A watercourse, no part of the sea, which by natural or man-made features is suitable for navigation, primarily by inland waterway vessels. This term covers navigable rivers, lakes, canals and estuaries.

Inland waterway vessel: A floating craft designed for the carriage of goods or public transport of passengers, which navigates predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.

Nationality of the vessel: The country in which the vessel is registered.

Inland waterways transport: Any movement of goods using inland waterways vessels, which is undertaken wholly or partly in navigable inland waterways.

National inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports of a national territory irrespective of the nationality of the vessel.

International inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport between two ports located in different national territories.

Transit inland waterways transport: Inland waterways transport through a national territory between two ports both located in another national territory or national territories provided that in the total journey within the national territory there is no trans-shipment.

Inland movement: any movement of goods and/or passengers to and from inland ports connected by water routes which may be made navigable by one or more lock structures.

Inland waterways traffic: Any movement of a vessel on a given navigable inland waterway.

Types of vessels:

• Self-propelled barge. Any powered inland waterways freight vessel, other than self-propelled tanker barges.
• Barge not self-propelled. Any unpowered inland waterways freight vessel, other than not self-propelled tanker barges. This category includes towed, pushed and pushed-towed barges.
• Self-propelled tanker barge. A self-propelled barge intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
• Tanker barge not self-propelled. A barge not self-propelled intended for the transport of liquids or gases in fixed tanks.
• Other goods carrying vessel. Any other known or unknown kind of inland waterways freight vessel intended for carrying goods not defined in the previous categories.
• Seagoing vessel. A vessel other than those, which navigate predominantly in navigable inland waterways or in waters within, or closely adjacent to, sheltered waters or areas where port regulations apply.

Containers: A freight container means an article of transport equipment:

1. of a permanent nature and accordingly strong enough to be suitable for repeated use;

2. specially designed to facilitate the carriage of goods by one or more modes of transport, without intermediate reloading;

3. fitted with devices permitting its ready handling, particularly its transfer from one mode of transport to another;

4. so designed as to be easy to fill and empty;

5. having a length of 20 feet or more.

The size of containers is reported according to four categories:

1) 20 Foot ISO containers (length of 20 feet and width of 8 feet)

2) 40 Foot ISO containers (length of 40 feet and width of 8 feet)

3) ISO containers over 20 feet and under 40 feet in length

4) ISO containers over 40 feet long

Containers smaller than 20 feet are reported under Category 1.

Containers of unknown size are reported under Category 3.

Inland waterways accidents: specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event caused by, or in connection with, the operation of an inland waterways vessel resulting in an inland waterways casualty or incident which occurs at a particular time and place, without apparent cause but with marked effect.

By definition suicides are excluded, as they are a deliberate act. Because of their importance, suicide statistics should be collected separately. Terrorist and criminal acts are excluded.

Inland waterways accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods: An inland waterways accident involving a vessel carrying any of the classes of dangerous goods defined by the ADN classification

Inland waterway traffic: any movement of an IWT vessel on a given IWT network.When a vessel is being carried on another vehicle, only the movement of the carrying vehicle (active mode) is taken into account.

Inland waterway journey: any movement of an IW vessel from a specified point of origin to a specified point of destination.

 For more definitions and concepts, please consult the “Reference Manual on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics”, chapter 4.

Vessel calls are collected at indivdual port level.

Sweden follows the definitions of the Reference Manual on Inland Waterways Transport Statistics.

The population consists of all vessel callls carrried out solely on inland waterways transport on a national territory over one year, irrespective of their country of origins or place of first loading and final unloading.

Swedish national IWW ports located in the dedicated IWW zones.

Annual and quarterly data are available for mandatory datasets from reference year 2022. Sweden recently exceeded the threshold of i million tonnes goods handled and the volumes are expected to increase in the future. Before 2022 Sweden has transmitted the annual dataset E1 for goods transport meassured in tonnes and tonnes-kilometres brokes down by type of transport (only national) and by type of goods.

Not applicable

The units used depend on the variables collected within each data set and are: number of tonnes loaded, tonnes-km, number of TEU and TEU-km. 

Data is disseminated using the following units of measure:

• 1000T: Thousands of tonnes
• MIO_TKM: Millions of tonnes/km (the transport of one tonne by inland waterways over one kilometre)
• TEU: Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (a unit of volume used in maritime transport statistics equivalent to a 20-foot ISO container )
• 1000 TEU_KM: Thousands of TEUs/Km (the transport of one twenty-foot equivalent unit over one kilometre )

Reference period is the calender year 2022.

National level:

The data are collected within the framework of the national Swedish official statistics.

https://www.scb.se/en/About-us/official-statistics-of-sweden/

The data collection is regulated by Transport analysis regulation, https://www.trafa.se/globalassets/styrdokument/foreskrift/webb_-_kamfs-trafafs_2012-2.pdf

European level:

Until 2021 data is reported annualy on a voluntary basis and only for dataset E1 with tonnes and tonnes-km divided by type of transport (national) and type of goods. From 2022 all the mandatory datasets are reported quarterly and annualy. 

The current regulation is Regulation (EU) 2018/974 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways. Regulation (EU) 2018/974 repealed Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 (Annex II) and its amending legal acts whilst the implementing Commission Regulation (EC) No 425/2007 (Annex III) remains in force.

Not applicable.

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.

National level:

• Public Asses to Information and Secretacy Act (Offentlighets- och sekretesslagen (OSL), https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/offentlighets--och-sekretesslag-2009400_sfs-2009-400.
  

   
   

The procedures with regard to statistical confidentiality follows the Handbook on Statistical Disclosure Control (2015), Handbok i statistisk röjandekontroll (scb.se) (only in Swedish).

Data confidentiality problems:

The collection procedure works well, but due to the Swedish confidentiality legislation concerning company information, there is a limited publication of information at the port level. Before publication of information from privately owned ports consent from the individual port is required.

National level:

https://www.trafa.se/sidor/kalendern/ (only in Swedish)

National level:

https://www.trafa.se/sidor/kalendern/ (only in Swedish)

National level:

Guidelines for the Swedish official statistics are issued by the National Statistical Insitute (NSI), Statistics Sweden. Fore more information, plaease visit https://www.scb.se/en/About-us/official-statistics-of-sweden/.

Quarterly and annually.

There are no press or news releases for the publications, only at the national level.

Inland Waterways statistics are used in Eurostat publications, for example in “Statistics explained”

Inland waterways data are also used at the national level in a Transport analysis publication similar to "Statistics explained" (only in Swedish).

Annual data on inland wayerways statistics may be retrieved from Transport analysis Swedish on-line database, https://www.trafa.se/sjofart/sjotrafik/?cw=1 (only in Swedish).

Microdata are disseminated for researchers and other statistical agencies. An application for is accesssible from here, https://www.trafa.se/sidor/utlamnande_av_mikrodata/.

No other formats.

A documentation with Meta information (Definitions, methods, quality) on Maritime and Inland Waterways Transport Statistics is available at national level (only in Swedish), https://www.trafa.se/en/maritime-transport/shipping-goods/.

A documentation with Meta information (Definitions, methods, quality) on Martime and Inland Waterway Transport Statistics is available at national level (only in Swedish), https://www.trafa.se/en/maritime-transport/shipping-goods/.

The general quality assurance framework (or similar) and brief description how it is implemented for the domain-specific quality assurance activities (the use of best practices, quality reviews, self-assessments, compliance monitoring etc.) is found here, https://www.scb.se/en/About-us/official-statistics-of-sweden/.

This includes an annual evulation of the quality and councils with main users.

Annual national evaluation of the statistics.
Known quality deficits are incomplete nformation about the type of goods (around 30% are unidentified goods, mainly goods in containers and goods carried in lorries) and incomplete detailed information about partner ports (a few percent unknown).

Among the main users are public authorities in Sweden, the Swedish government and parliament, representatives from the transportation industry, researchers and journalists. The statistics is used to describe the evolution of the maritime sector alone, with comparison to other transport modes and with comparisons to other countries.
Users requests include geographical breakdowns by port and by passenger route. Statistics with detailed geographical breakdowns, eg. by port or route, may not be satisfied due to confidentiality reasons.

Sweden conduct satisfaction surveys and arrange physical meetings with main users on a regular basis. The results of these consultation are to possible extent taken into consideration in the development of the statistics. The results of the satisfactions surveys are mirrored in chapter 12.1.

The data collection on inland waterways statistics follows the provisions of the EU Regulation. Sweden started to provide mandatory data from 2022 according to the regulation.

Additional needs expressed by data users - at the present it is not possible to identify the true origin/destination for vessels calling Swedish ports, only "the next port".

National level:

The overall quality is good. The statistics is based on census from all Swedish ports with commercial vessel calls rather than a sample of calls.

Not applicable

Assessed to be small and of minor importance. There is no or limited non-ressponse. Administrative registers are used for information about the vessels.

The statistics are published as soon as the data from the Swedish ports are available for statistical compilation. All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation are transmitted to Eurostat as soon as possible after the reference quarter or reference year.

The statistics are published on time according to the relaese plan. The data are transmitted to Eurostat according to the Regulation.

The statistics are harmonized within the European statistical system. 

Comparable time series from and including 2017 are available on the Swedish home page, https://www.trafa.se/en/maritime-transport/shipping-goods/.

International standard classifications are used. Statistical measures may be compared to statistical measures in other transport statistics, for example amount of goods loaded/unloaded and number of passengers. The comparisons with other transport modes is sometimes difficult due to various definitions.

Sufficient quality. The national and European publications are based on the same data source and should be internally consistent.

The data collection and production of the statistics are an integrated part of the maritime transport statistics. There is no separate cost and burden accounting for the Inland waterways statistics.

Efforts have recently been made to reduce the response burden. Register based information about the vessels has partly been replaced the mandatory data collection from the Swedish ports. Variables not requested and of insuffiicient quality have been removed from the questionnaire.

The policy follow the guidelines issued by Statistics Sweden (National Staistical Insitute) "Guidelines and routines for revisions of statistical values", https://www.scb.se/contentassets/0cd92207266d40eb8829244d51d90b94/riktlinjer_for_revideringar_-av_-statistikvarden.pdf (only in Swedish).

The quarterly statistics are preliminary and subject to minor revisions until the annual statistics is released. The annual statistics is normally final and not subject to revisions.

The revisions are small and due to wrong or incomplete reporting of port calls. 

Data sources consist of reports from Swedish ports combined with recent data from international vessel registers for information about vessel characteristics.

Data from ports are collected quarterly and data from international vessel register on annual basis.

Data are collected via web questionnaire or uploaded standardized data files. Validation checks are embedded in the electronic data collection tool.

Data validation procedure :
Automatic checks are implemented. Errors are communicated with reporting port.
Description of consistency checks :
Manual comparisons with other data sources and historical data.

After various plausibility checks, the data received from the ports are compiled into annual data following the structure of the data sets which are preset by the regulation.

Data codification practices :
There is no problem using the codes.
Problems on data compilation, validation and delivery:
There is no problem on data compilation, validation and delivery.

There is no non-response at the port level. Non respone for certain variables is very rare.

Not applicable.

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