FSO (Swiss Federal Statistical Office)

Transport section (MOBIL)

Espace de l'Europe 10, 2010 Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Road freight data collection consists of three datasets with quarterly periodicity:
1. Vehicle related variables dataset for a sample of road goods motor vehicles contain, among others, indication about the type and age of the vehicle, the total kilometres loaded or empty.
2. Journey related variables dataset which contains, among others, indication about weight of goods, regions of loading and unloading, distance driven, and tonne-kilometres performed during a journey.
3. Goods related variables dataset which contains, among others, the type of goods transported and their weight and distance travelled, regions of loading and unloading.

Data are collected by paper and online questionnaire. Vehicle owners have to report all basic transport operations and empty journies performed during the reporting week. Technical vehicle data as well as the owner's name and address are taken from the Motor Vehicle Register maintained by the Swiss Federal Roads Office. Participation is compulsory. Two reminders are sent out in case of non-reply within the deadlines.

Electronic data exchange is used for some big transport companies, based on data extractions from company's IT systems.

Statistics on carriage of goods by road apply the following statistical classifications:

• The type of goods transported by road are collected according to the 20 groups of goods following the "Standard Goods Classification for Transport Statistics 2007 (NST 2007)",).
• The regional coding is done in conformity with European legislation: "NUTS Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics" (see also NUTS).
• 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, as published in Annex E of Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98. Directive 2008/68/EC makes reference to ADR as regards the transport of dangerous goods by road.
• 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).

Goods vehicles registered in Switzerland with a maximum permissible laden weight of more than 3.5 tonnes (lorries, road tractors), except special vehicles like fire engines and military vehicles. Commercial transport (hire or reward) as well as transport on own account are covered.

Data are collected by sample survey.

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).

Tractive road goods vehicle.

Goods vehicles registered in Switzerland with a maximum permissible laden weight of more than 3.5 tonnes (lorries, road tractors), except special vehicles like fire engines and military vehicles.

The data provided are kilometers driven and basic transport operations performed in Switzerland and abroad by goods vehicles registered in Switzerland.

Datasets have been provided according to the legal act from reference year 2008 onwards.

Not applicable.

Respondents have to report all basic transport operations and empty journies for the selected vehicle and survey week (Monday to Sunday).

Weight of goods is collected in kilograms. Odometer readings are collected at the points of loading and unloading, distances are calculated from the difference. Tonne-kilometers are calculated by multiplying the tonnes loaded with the transport distance.

The road data are collected on a quarterly basis and are reported to Eurostat five months after the end of the reference period.

National level:

•  431.01 Federal Statistics Act of 9 October 1992 (FStatA)

European level: 

• REGULATION (EU) N° 70/2012   

National level :

Information on the vehicle as well as name and address of the vehicle owner are taken from the Motor Vehicle Register maintained by the Swiss Federal Roads Office. The Federal Statistical Office also receives data on the performance-related heavy vehicle charge LSVA collected by the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security. These toll data allow a comprehensive picture of the kilometers driven by heavy goods vehicles in Switzerland and are used for data validation and statistical weighting.

From Eurostat :

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.

National level:

•  235.1 Federal Act of 19 June 1992 on Data Protection (FADP) 

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.

Publicly available data are aggregated in a way that identification of vehicle owners is not possible. Data exchange tables from Eurostat with data of all reporting countries are not used for national publication.

Tables and a pdf publication are available on the FSO website about 11 months after the end of a survey year. Provisional quarterly data on key figures are available on the FSO website about 5 months after the end of a survey quarter. A release calendar is publicly accessible on the FSO website.

Release calender on the FSO website: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/news/agenda.html

In line with the European Statistics Code of Practice, the FSO disseminates statistics on road freight transport respecting professional independence and in an objective and transparant manner in which all users are treated equitably. Main results are available free of charge to all users and data are available to all users at the same time.

Detailed yearly results are disseminated about 11 months after the end of the reference year. Provisional quartarly results are available on the FSO website around five months after the end of a quarter.

Yearly data on road transport statistics are in general disseminated in combination with a press release, treating goods transport in Switzerland (e.g. comparison road-rail).

Yearly data on road transport statistics are disseminated in combination with a pdf publication "BFS Aktuell", treating goods transport in Switzerland (e.g. comparison road-rail). Data are also integrated in overview publications on mobility and transport, statistical yearbook and other publications.

not applicable.

Research institutes and other professional users can apply for microdata access. In order to obtain access to anonymised microdata, they have to sign a confidentiality contract.

• Detailed tables on road freight transport (excel format)
• FSO website with short description of main results, diagrams and web tables.

National level:

Two reports are available on the FSO website: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/mobilitaet-verkehr/erhebungen/gte.html

• Report on the Swiss road freight transport survey (available in German and French only)
• Methodological report (available in German/French only)

European level:

National characteristics of surveys, conducted in the reporting countries, are published in Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in Member States, EFTA and Candidate Countries. This latter publication also contains data on response rates, vehicle registers' quality, sampling rates and statistical errors in surveys.

Detailed tables on the FSO website include confidence intervals, allowing data users to assess the reliability of the figures.

The quality assurance of road freight transport statistics data is based on the following principles:

1. Methods and definitions are according to regulation (EU) No 70/2012.

2. Detailed validation checks are applied.

3. Results are compared with previous years and other independent data sources.

4. Precision calculations are disseminated (confidence intervals).

5. The statistical errors (percentage standard error) of the micro-data transmitted to Eurostat are not greater than 5%.

Alll heavy goods vehicles driving in or through Switzerland are subject to the Performance-related heavy vehicle charge (LSVA). For this purpose, all kilometres performed in Switzerland are registered by the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security. The FSO uses these data for validation checks (e.g. identification of respondents erroneously declaring no activity during the survey week) and as a benchmark for grossing-up. Thanks to these LSVA data, road freight transport statistics data are of high quality.

The main users of the road freight statistics are the national and regional authorities, research institutions and industrial organisations.

The use of road freight statistics by administrations is frequently indirect: Data are used by the administrations via studies executed by researchers and other contractors.

The main policy areas include competition, regional policies, transport planning and environmental analyses.

A user survey of road freight statistics was carried out in 2010/11, as part of a research project on road freight transport by the Federal Roads Office. The following major strengths were identified: timeliness, international comparability, high significance of the data, long time series, transparency of data collection procedures. The following major weaknesses were mentioned: lack of data on multi-modal transport chains and intermodal transport, lack of recent data on light utility vehicles, lack of certain indicators for logistics (e.g. quality and efficency of transport operations).

The need for more recent data on light utility vehicles was addressed by the FSO with the surveys on light utility vehicles in 2013 and 2023.

Light utility vehicles (maximum permissible laden weight of 3.5 tonnes or less) are excluded from the road freight transport survey. A special survey on light utility vehicles was carried out in 2013 and is planned to be repeated in a ten-year interval.

The accuracy of road freight statistics data is high. The sampling error is within the limits set out in Article 2 of Commission Regulation (EC) 642/2004. Thanks to the exhaustive kilometre data collected by the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, underreporting can be identified and taken into account when grossing-up the road freight data.

The standard percentage error (95% confidence) of annual estimates for tonnes transported, tonne-kilometres performed and total kilometres travelled are smaller than 5% for total goods road transport and for national goods road transport.

Alll heavy goods vehicles driving in or through Switzerland are subject to the Performance-related heavy vehicle charge (LSVA). For this purpose, all kilometres performed in Switzerland are registered by the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security. The FSO uses these data for validation checks (e.g. identification of respondents erroneously declaring no activity during the survey week) and as a benchmark for grossing-up. Thanks to these LSVA data, road freight transport statistics data are of high quality.

National:

Provisional quarterly data of total vehicle kilometres, tonnes and tonne-kilometres are disseminated within five months after the end of the reference quarter. Detailed annual data are disseminiated within eleven months after the end of a reference year.

Eurostat:

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.

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.

Road freight data are collected in line with the definitions and methodology based on Road freight transport methodology:

1. According to Regulation (EU) No 70/2012, gross weight (excluding packaging, pallets and containers) is reported.

2. Multi-stop journeys are reported by consignment (basic transport operations).

3. Swap-bodies with lengths of 20 feet or more are reported as "large freight containers" according to UN Recommendation 21.

Comparable time series for top aggregated level of data from 1993 onwards. Surveys were conducted in 1993, 1998, 2003 and permanently since 2008. The 2003 survey was already in line with EU methodology. Data are provided to Eurostat since reference year 2008.

In Switzerland, road and rail are the main transport modes. Road freight data are collected by sample surveys on the Swiss haulier's operations in Switzerland and abroad. Rail freight data are collected by full surveys on all (for some datasets the most important) rail companies' operations in Switzerland (principle of territoriality). Road freight data are also converted to the territoriality principle for national data dissemination and are therefore comparable to rail freight data.  

Differences are observed between road freight transport data and foreign trade statistics. These are mainly due to different methodologies and definitions. 

Not applicable

Data on approximatly 9000 vehicles are collected per year. This corresponds to 17% of the total number of heavy goods vehicles registerd in Switzerland. Data have to be reported for a specified, randomly selected reference week.

In 2020, respondents spent 27 minutes on average on filling the questionnaire (preparation time included). If only questionnaires with transport operations are taken into account, the average filling time amounts to 39 minutes. The estimation method is based on measured session times of the online questionnaire and estimated preparation times.

The FSO data rectification policy distinguishes between three different basic forms: 

• replacement of provisional by official data
• revisions (due to new or more accurate input data or new methodological insights)
• rectification of incorrect data 

The policy aims at providing data users with correct and up-to-date data according to their needs, providing transparent information on any changes in published data and ensuring documentation of data revision and rectification.

• Quarterly data on the FSO website are provisional and are replaced by official data with the dissemination of the annual data. The provisional character of the data is clearly indicated.
• Revisions have not occurred since 2008 and are not foreseen.
• Corrected figures are flagged with the letter "r". In the Download Center on the FSO website, corrected data tables are accompanied by a text indicating that it's a corrected version. Moreover, the reference date of the results is indicated in data tables.

Sampling register used for the survey

Name of register:

Motor Vehicle Register

Name of organisation who maintains the register:

Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO)

Frequency of update:

Once a week

Frequency of access to draw the samples:

Once a week

Arrangements for accessing the register:

Bilateral agreement between the FSO and the FEDRO in line with the Federal Statistics Act. Weekly extraction of the register at FEDRO via a protected web server.

Information obtained from the register:

Name, address, registration number, number of seats, type of vehicle, type of body (lorries only), brand name and model, load capacity, maximum permissible laden weight, unladen weight, emission class, date of first registration of the vehicle, existence or not of a loading crane, existence or not of a hydraulic lift, existence or not of a cable winch, existence or not of a trailer coupling, tank volume (cistern volume), number of axles (tractive vehicle only), license plate number, existence or not of a particle filter, odometer reading from the last roadworthiness test, date of the last roadworthiness test, CO2 emission, Enterprise Identification Number, type of fuel, energy efficiency category.

Used in stratification: type of vehicle and maximum permissible laden weight.

Data reported by vehicle owners

Type of transport (hire or reward / own account), reasons of non-utilisation of the vehicle during the whole survey week (if any), transit countries (if any), type of goods, weight of goods, type of freight (bulk, container, palletised, etc.), type of dangerous goods (if any), postal codes of loading and unloading places, country codes of loading and unloading places (only if abroad), odometer readings at the points of loading and unloading.

Procedure for reminders:

First reminder: sent out 2 weeks after the deadline.

Second reminder: sent 3 weeks after the first one.

For both reminders, all material is sent again (questionnaire, letter, instructions).

Every week, around 170 data requests are sent out to owners of randomly selected vehicles.

Sampling methodology

Statistical unit:

Tractive vehicle

Types of units excluded:

Light vehicles with a maximum permissible laden weight equal or less than 3 500 kg and special vehicles (e.g. agricultural tractors, fire engines, military vehicles). In 2013, however, a special survey on light goods vehicles was carried out. This survey is planned to be conducted in a ten-year interval.

Light Vehicles with a maximum permissible laden weight equal or less than 3 500 kg (e.g. vans) cover about 70 % of the vehicle-km and about 5 % of the performance (tkm) in road freight transport in Switzerland.

Time unit:

1 week

Time unit of quarter 1 of 2022 included in the survey:

13 weeks

Stratification:

The sample is stratified according to the week of survey, the type of vehicle and the maximum permissible laden weight (mplw). Lorries are divided into 4 strata (351, 352, 353, 354). Road tractors form the 5th stratum (381).

351: MPLW 3 501 - 7 500 kg

352: MPLW 7 501 - 18 000 kg

353: MPLW 18 001 - 26 000 kg

354: MPLW >26 000 kg

This decomposition is applied to each week and the coding sent to Eurostat corresponds to the survey week number followed by the preceding code. For instance a road tractor with information during the week 22 is in the strata 22381.

Recording of weight of goods:

Gross weight of goods is collected, i.e. weight of containers, swap bodies and pallets is excluded.

Recording of journey data sent to Eurostat:

Single stop: All commodity types transported on a vehicle are recorded.

Multi stop: Information is collected on the basis of a description of each basic transport operation (with additional details on unladen journeys). The journey data are derived from the goods data

Collection/delivery: The transported goods weight is assumed to increase/decrease steadily between the first and last stop of collection/delivery tonne-km = (0.5 * goods weight * distance of collection/delivery)

Calculation of weighting factors:

Weighting factor = 13*N/(S+S')

N = number of vehicles in the register (in a stratum)

S = number of questionnaires used in analysis (in A1 dataset)

S’= number of vehicles for which no activity was recorded, but vehicles could be considered as active (holiday, no work, etc.)

This initial grossing factor is then adjusted by a raking ratio procedure (calibration method). The external data sources used for this method are the total number of vehicle by strata for the survey week and the total distance by class of distance travelled weekly by quarter (data extracted from the LSVA tax).

Optional variables covered:

• Vehicle empty kilometres
• Type of freight

Additional variables collected compared to the legal requirements

Environmental impact-related variables:

Type of fuel. Data on emission class and average CO2-emissions are available from the register.

A1. Vehicle-related variables:

Vehicle operator’s NACE category of activity is obtained by matching name and address of the vehicle owner to the business register. For about 15% of the vehicles, no NACE category can be defined due to lacking matches.

A2. Journey-related variables:

none

A3. Goods-related variables:

type of freight (cargo types) as defined in the Regulation 

Means of data collection:

Postal survey: paper questionnaires are sent out weekly. Login information for the online questionnaire is printed on the paper questionnaire, so respondents can choose between filling the paper or online questionnaire. The questionnaire and other documents are available on the FSO website: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/mobilitaet-verkehr/erhebungen/gte.html

Electronic data transfer has been established with a first large transport company in 2015 and is being extended to other interested companies step by step.

National level :

Various validation checks are performed: verification of codes and value ranges, comparisons between variables within the datasets and between dataset and external sources (e.g. LSVA data). Aggregated data are compared to other sources and to previous years.

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.

The data compilation process is described in a document published on the FSO website (in German/French): https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/mobilitaet-verkehr/erhebungen/gte.assetdetail.348164.html 

Road freight data are not seasonally adjusted.

Data on kilometres travelled by heavy goods vehicles are available from the performance-related heavy vehicle charge (LSVA) and are of high reliability. This high quality data source is used for adjustment of the survey data by a raking ratio procedure (see 18.3 Data collection for more details).

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