Statistic Finland

Social statistics

FI-00022 Statistics Finland

Statistics on goods transport by road describe the transport activity of lorries registered in Finland.

1. Road freight data collection 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.
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.

The data of the statistics comply with Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics on goods transport by road and are comparable with the statistics of other EU countries.

Transports are classified into private and licensed transports according to vehicle use. Lorries are classified by vehicle type into lorries without trailer, and semi-trailer and full trailer combinations. Transported goods are classified into 45 categories according to a national classification of types of goods. In addition, transports can be classified by age of lorry, axle combination, hazardous goods category, type of cargo, type of trip, and area of departure and destination.

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

• The type of goods transported by road was collected, until reference year 2007 (included), according 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). From 2008 onwards, goods have been classified according to "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 RAMON/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.

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).

Statistics cover the following road freight transport operations by heavy goods vehicles registered in Finland:

• Commercial road freight transport (NACE Rev.1.1 I6024; NACE Rev.2 H494), referred to as "Hire or reward" road freight transport.
• Road freight transport by private vehicles and by vehicles owned by companies classified in other classes than professional road freight transport. This kind of transport is identified as "Own account" road freight and it covers transport operations by manufacturing industry, construction, trade and other companies.

Operations by small goods vehicles (the definition of "a small goods vehicle" depends on the country) and extra-EEA vehicles are not covered in these statistics.

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) and calculated (by multiplying the weight of goods by the distance travelled for each goods operation).

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 in Finland is the goods road transport vehicle (lorry).

Lorries registered in Finland that weight over 3,5 tonnes (vehicle register).

Lorries owned by The Finnish Defence Forces and lorries that are not primarly intended for goods transport are exluded.

Statistics Finland provides data on goods road transport vehicles registered in Finland. Data include domestic and international transport.

Data is available from the year 1999 onwards. Starting from 2011, the statistical method was changed for both domestic and international transport causing a break in the time series.

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)).

Finland collects data every 3 to 4 days while the time unit for most other countries in EU is one week.

Annual data are summed up from the quarterly data.

The "three-layer structure" of data (vehicle data, journey data and goods data) allows calculating some vehicle data from the journey data and some journey data from 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.

This metadata file refers both annually and quarterly to statistical year 2022.

National level:

Finnish legislation: The Statistics Act

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): 

European level: 

• REGULATION (EU) N° 70/2012   

National level :

Finnish legislation: The Statistics Act

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:

• Finnish legislation: The Statistics Act

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.

Disclosed statistical aggregates must contain data on at least three units.

Quarterly and yearly release according to dates set in the release calendar of Statistics Finland, which is publicly accessible on its web page. The release calendar lists in advance all the statistical data and publications to be released over the year. The calendar is updated on weekdays.

Release calendar

The data is released at the same time for all users according to the general release policy of Statistics Finland including release on web-site, Twitter and RSS-feeds.

Quarterly

Goods Transport by road 2022: https://stat.fi/en/publication/ckt8marmw5gy60c002pblydl5

Goods Transport by Road statistics – regular series of publications released quarterly at https://stat.fi/en/statistics/kttav

Goods Transport by Road 2022 available here: https://stat.fi/en/publication/ckt8marmw5gy60c002pblydl5

Online databases:

• Statistics Finland's PX-Web databases
• The Eurostat database

Micro-data is disseminated through Taika - research data catalogue and by Eurostat.

Aggregated data sets are also disseminated through regular and individual assigments from various organizations and research projects.

National characteristics of surveys, conducted in the reporting countries in 2017, including Finland, were 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 carried out in 2016.

Basic description on this statistics is also available here.

Quality description will be published by Eurostat in 2020 (in english).

Quality descriptions can be found from statistics's home page here.

Quality management of Statistics Finland: http://www.stat.fi/org/periaatteet/laadunhallinta_en.html

The quality assurance of the EU road freight transport statistics data can be found here.

Main strengths:

• Methodology follows closely the instructions and definitions given in REGULATION (EU) N° 70/2012 
• Overall data quality is sufficient for producing the main indicators annually and quarterly.

Main weaknesses:

• The number of observations for Own account and International transports is too small for producing reliable results quarterly.
• Detailed breakdown (group of goods, geographical area) of the results is challenging because there isn't enough observations.

The main users of the EU road freight statistics are the European Commission, the national authorities of the EU member states, research institutions and industrial organisations.

In Finland the main users of the road freight statistics are:

• The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (road maintenance etc.)
• The Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres)
• Finnish Transport and Logistics (SKAL)
• Other governmental and regional offices and organizations
• Various researchers and research projects

In an account done in 2021 main users where found to be fairly satisfied with the statistics.

There is a high demand from users for more comprehensive data on goods transport which would enable more accurate (regional) analysis.

Compliant with the requirements of REGULATION (EU) N° 70/2012.

Small goods vehicles (with loading capacity below 3.5 tonnes) and extra-EU vehicles (vehicles registered in other than the reporting countries) are not covered by the Eurostat data.

In Finland the lack of data on the performance of Russian operators is a notable deficiency.

There is a high demand from users for more comprehensive data on goods transport which would enable more accurate (regional) analysis.

• As road freight statistics are based on sample surveys, the completeness of the data decreases as the detail of breakdowns increases. For example, the regional origin-destination data are collected at NUTS-3 level, but the data cannot be published because most origin-destination flows are based on few observations and the data are considered as confidential according to the dissemination rules. Still, many users ask for such detailed data.

Meeting the requirements set out in Article 2 of Commission Regulation (EC) 642/2004 regarding the accuracy of the annual estimates is challenging in Finland. There are challenges with both the sampling error and non-sampling error. The main problem is the small number of valid observations. This concerns especially own account transport and international transport.

At the moment sample survey is the only viable method to collect data about goods transport on road in Finland. The objective is to get most of the road freight data directly from the transport companies in the future.

The compliance of the reporting countries with Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 is partly assessed on the basis of the sampling error.

In general, the standard percentage error (95% confidence) of annual estimates for tonnes transported, tonne-kilometres performed and total kilometres travelled loaded shall not be greater than 5% for total goods road transport and for national goods road transport. In Finland the standard errors for tonnes transported and tonne-kilometres performed, in both total and national transport, are generally between 5-7%. For total kilometres travelled loaded the standard errors have been constantly between 4-5%. These results are based on Eurostat's precision calculations that are available on CIRCA library: https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/6e7b31cf-a9e3-46f0-bd40-5fda438a2a81.

The conclusion on the sampling error of road freight transport statistics is that the more the data are broken down, the more imprecise the results are. This should be kept in mind when working with road freight transport data.

Non-sampling error means the error in sample estimates which cannot be attributed to sampling fluctuations.

Some of the sources for the non-sampling error in Finland are:

• Unit non-response
• High number of cases where no vehicle activity were recorded during the sampled period
• Somewhat inaccurate sampling frame leading to both over- and undercoverage.

Although the annual response rate for the survey has always been relatively high (approximately 60%), the high number of observations that report no activity during the sampled period (25%) and where sample register information is wrong (5%) means that the share of the vehicles that actually report any deliveries is only 25-30% (or 2 500-3 000 vehicles) of the initial sample of 10 000 vehicles.

Some factors causing non-sampling error has been identified and measures to improve the situation will be evaluated.

Data are updated once per quarter and published within three months after the reference period.

Data are submitted to Eurostat within 5 months after the end of the reference period. Data are published in Eurostat database within three months after arriving to Eurostat.

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.

Finland has no problem respecting the 5 month delay.

EU level:

• A similar survey methodology, based on Road freight transport methodology, is generally applied by all reporting countries. In general rule, the definitions are the same with those presented in the manual. For this reason, the geographical coherence of the EU road freight statistics is generally very good. However, there are some national characteristics of surveys that should be kept in mind when comparing the estimates, see here

 In Finland:

• No known comparability issues. Data collection for Finland is done centrally by Statistics Finland using the same methods for the whole country.
• Due to the nature of the road freight transport business and the random sampling method used in data collection there is insufficient journey data for certain areas of the country.

Data on road transport is available from 1999 onwards. Starting from 2011, the statistical method was changed for both domestic and international transport causing a break in the time series.

The nature of the road freight market differs considerable from that of other transport modes. For example, compared to the rail freight, the road freight market consists of many small operators, own account transport is very common and operators can be active in several countries. For example, in the rail freight the market is still today dominated by one big operator.

On the other hand, road freight statistics cannot be based on observations at stable terminal points, as in the case of port and airport based statistics of sea and air transport.

The nature of the road freight market therefore determines also the kind of methods than can be used for collecting statistics. In a fragmented market consisting of many small operators, a sample survey seems to be the only alternative, whereas the rail operators can produce the statistics as a "census" of all consignment notes for a given period from their computer systems.

Another particularity of the road freight statistics is that data are collected by nationality of operator on all their activities, in the reporting country and abroad.

For these reasons, road freight statistics are different from those of other transport modes, and the most important characteristics are that the values are estimates based on sample surveys and that each reporting country reports on its hauliers' operations all over the world, not just on the territory of the reporting country.

Internal coherence is good as only final data and results are released.

Cost and burden are not systematically collected.

In 2015 data providers using the internet questionnaire were asked how long it took overall for them to meet the requirements of the survey. The average burden was 57 minutes per year.

Based on the burden and the average salary of certain occupational classes it was calculated that the cost for completing the survey was 17 euros per unit.

In Finland Road freight transport statistics are in general final when published and there are no revisions.

Data that are submitted to Eurostat might be revised on the basis of detected errors. These errors don't typically have any effect on the main indicators.

In Finland Road freight transport statistics are in general final when published and there are no revisions.

Source data

Data for road freight transport are micro-data obtained through questionnaires sent out by Member States to a sample of hauliers for vehicles registered in their country. These micro-data concern the vehicles themselves, their journeys and the goods that were transported.

Sampling register used for the survey

Name of register:

1) Vehicle Register

2) Membership register

Name of organisations who maintains the register:

1) Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom)

2) SKAL-S (International Road Carriers of Finland – Association of Contract Operators in Finland – Association of Tank Operators in Finland)

Frequency of update:

Constantly

Frequency of access to draw the samples:

1) Once a quarter

2) Twice a year

Arrangements for accessing the register:

An agreement for co-operation in statistical issues with Finnish Transport and Communications Agency and with SKAL-S.

Information obtained from the register:

1) The vehicle’s register number, the vehicle holder’s name and address, the vehicle holder’s register code (if not a natural person), the vehicle holder’s language, date of first registration, model, made, type of vehicle, body type, type of transport, self-weight, load capacity, maximum permissible laden weight, type of haul device (hook/fifth wheel), number of axles, engine power.

Used for stratification:

• Type of transport (own account, hire or reward)
• maximum permissible laden weight (over 3.5 tonnes and up to 6 tonnes, over 6 tonnes)
• type of vehicle (lorry, articulated vehicle, road train).

2) Membership of SKAL-S, which is also used for stratification

Samples are drawn quarterly and the survey is carried out continously throughout the entire year.

In Finland the time period for collecting data on each statistical unit is 3 to 4 days.

Annual data are summed up from the quarterly data.

Data collection

The survey data on goods transport by road are collected with electronic questionnaires. They are directed to lorry owners selected by random sampling from the vehicle register.

Sampling methodology

Statistical unit:

Tractive vehicle

Types of units excluded:

Vans whose maximum permissible laden weight is 3.5 tonnes or less. Furthermore, military vehicles and vehicles which are not especially designed to transport goods such as museum vehicles, fire engines and special vehicles.

Estimations for the vehicle-km (or performance) not covered by the survey:

Vans, whose maximum permissible laden weight is 3.5 tonnes or less, had 5.217 million vehicle kilometres in 2008 (see 2010 EU-GRANTS project ‘Estimating vehicle kilometres with odometer readings, Eurostat No 30402.2009.004–2009.401, Table 17.)

Time unit:

3 days for non-members of SKAL-S, 4 days for members of SKAL-S. These days make a period of one week. Every other week starts with 3 days and every other week starts with 4 days.

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

12 weeks (out of possible 12 weeks and 6 days), i.e. all

Procedure for reminders:

Questionnaires for four successive survey periods (two weeks altogether) are sent simultaneously. Reminders are sent like described below:

• If a vehicle holder does not respond in 3 days after the due date for return of the questionnaire, first reminder is sent out by post.
• If a vehicle holder still does not respond within 2 weeks of the previous reminder, second reminder is sent by post.
• If a vehicle holder still does not respond within 2 weeks of the previous reminder, third reminder is sent by e-mail.
• If a vehicle holder still does not respond within one week of the previous reminder, fourth reminder is sent by text message.

From 2014 to 2019 response rate has been between 58 and 63 % while the share of questionnaires used in analysis has stayed around 50 %. The share of incomplete answers has also risen. By incomplete answers we mean that:

• Respondent has only visited web questionnaire but not filled in anything
• Filled in only contact information
• Filled in that vehicle was in use, but no journeys was given
• Etc.

Stratification:

The population frame consists of lorries registered in Finland. The sample is drawn from this frame. The sample is spread evenly over all days of the week and the sample is self-weighting with respect to seasonal effects as well as to the regional coverage of 20 regions.

The sample is stratified by:

• if the holder of the vehicle belongs to SKAL-S (2)
• type of transport (2)
• maximum permissible laden weight (2)
• type of vehicle (3)

All together there are 16 strata:

1) non-member of SKAL-S, own account, MPLW over 3.5 tonnes and up to 6 tonnes, lorry

2) non-member of SKAL-S, own account, MPLW over 6 tonnes, lorry

3) non-member of SKAL-S, own account, MPLW over 6 tonnes, articulated vehicle

4) non-member of SKAL-S, own account, MPLW over 6 tonnes, road train

5) non-member of SKAL-S, hire or reward, MPLW over 3.5 tonnes and up to 6 tonnes, lorry

6) non-member of SKAL-S, hire or reward, MPLW over 6 tonnes, lorry

7) non-member of SKAL-S, hire or reward, MPLW over 6 tonnes, articulated vehicle

8) non-member of SKAL-S, hire or reward, MPLW over 6 tonnes, road train

9) member of SKAL-S, own account, MPLW over 3.5 tonnes and up to 6 tonnes, lorry

10) member of SKAL-S, own account, MPLW over 6 tonnes, lorry

11) member of SKAL-S, own account, MPLW over 6 tonnes, articulated vehicle

12) member of SKAL-S, own account, MPLW over 6 tonnes, road train

13) member of SKAL-S, hire or reward, MPLW over 3.5 tonnes and up to 6 tonnes, lorry

14) member of SKAL-S, hire or reward, MPLW over 6 tonnes, lorry

15) member of SKAL-S, hire or reward, MPLW over 6 tonnes, articulated vehicle

16) member of SKAL-S, hire or reward, MPLW over 6 tonnes, road train

Stratum 1 and 9 are combined and marked as stratum 1 when data are sent to Eurostat.

This is done similarly to strata 2 and 10, to strata 3 and 11 and so on.

Recording of weight of goods:

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

Recording of journey data (sent to Eurostat):

Single stop: The commodity class of the goods that has the biggest weight is being used.

Multi stop: Multi-stop journeys are coded by consignments (the first place of loading for the goods and the last place of unloading of the goods are being used). The weight of goods is reported when biggest during the journey.

Collection/delivery: If there are more than 4 stops for loading/unloading during the journey, journey is classified as a collection or distribution journey.

The first place of loading of the goods and the last place of unloading is being used.

The weight of goods is reported when the biggest during the journey.

Tonne-kilometres are divided by 2.

Estimation of maximum permissible laden weight:

If the maximum permissible laden weight for an articulated vehicle or a road train is not given by the holder, then it is estimated.

In estimation we use a table which has means of weights for different axle combinations of vehicles from an earlier time period.

Calculation of weighting factors:

Strata 1–8 are exactly the same as strata 9–16 except for one difference: in strata 1–8 the first variable has the value ‘non-member of SKAL-S’ whereas in strata 9–16 it has the value ‘member of SKAL-S’.

When weighing factors are calculated, the first variable is not taken into account.

In other words, stratum 1 and 9 are combined and the weighing factor is calculated to that group, and this is done similarly to strata 2 and 10, to strata 3 and 11 and so on.

T = Time factor

N = number of all vehicles (in a stratum)

R = number of respondents (active and non-active in a stratum)

Optional variables covered:

A1. Vehicle-related variables:

• possibility of using vehicles for combined transport (NO)
• vehicle empty kilometres (NO)
• vehicle operator’s NACE Rev. 2 at class level (four-digit level) (NO)

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 (YES)
• place of unloading, if any, of the road transport vehicle from another means of transport (YES)
• 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 (N)

Additional variables collected compared to the legal requirements:

Environmental impact-related variables: none

National level:

The web-form contains basic logical checks to prevent missing data and input of erroneous data. Further logical and consistency checks are performed once the data has been transferred to the production database. Check lists are generated containing records with logical errors or devious values separately for most variables. If necessary, the data provider is requested to provide corrected data.

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.
• Aggregated data are also compared to national aggregates provided in supplementary tables.
• Time series checks by reporting country are carried out on aggregated data.
• Precision calculations according to Commission Regulation 642/2004 are regularly carried out by Eurostat. As this process has been in place only since 1999 it might be, however, that not all data of the previous periods (until 1998) were controlled as properly as the most recent data.

Finland do not imputate information on missing road transport performance for any observations.

Some missing information on vehicles is derived based on the available data. There are also checks for logical errors and devious values which are corrected automatically or manually if possible. 

The results obtained with the sample data are expanded using weighting coefficients to apply to the entire sampling framework and quarter.

The survey is carried out throughout the entire year, there is no seasonal adjustment applied to the road data.

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