CSB (Centrālā statistikas Pārvalde (Central Statistical Bureau))

Transport and Tourism Statistics Section

1 Lāčplēša street, Rīga, LV1301

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.

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 )",.
  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 NUTS).
• Economic activity class of the vehicle owner is an optional variable. Data were collected according to NACE Rev. 1 until the end of 2007. From the beginning of 2008 onwards, the economic activity has been classified according to NACE Rev. 2 (see  "Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (NACE Rev. 2)").
• 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 produced on the basis of Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 .

Operations by small goods vehicles (vehicles with carrying capacity less than 3.5 tonnes) and extra-EEA vehicles are not covered in these statistics.

Data are based on 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).

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 first reference year of reporting the regular road freight data to Eurostat was 2002.

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 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.

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:

Statistics Law (https://likumi.lv/ta/en/en/id/274749-statistics-law)

Council Regulation No 782 "Official Statistics Programme for 2022–2024 (in Latvian only) Council Regulation No 782"Official Statistics Programme for 2022-2024"

European level:  

REGULATION (EU) N° 70/2012 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods by road (recast).

National level :

Annually semi-aggregated data, which are received from Eurostat, are used for internal calculations only.

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

Confidentiality of the information provided by respondents is protected by the Section 17 of the  Statistics Law

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.

All road freight micro-data are treated as if they were confidential. This means the following:

• data transmission to Eurostat takes place in encrypted format using the eDAMIS data transmission tool;
• data are treated on a secured server, to which access is restricted and strictly controlled;
• all people working with the road freight micro-data must sign an agreement stipulating that they respect the rules of the treatment of confidential data;

Dissemination of the data  can only take place if the value is based on more than 10 vehicle records (see Commission Regulation (EC) 6/2003, Article 3 (1)).

Data from tables D sent by Eurostat are not published in any databases.

Road transport statistics (News releases and Statistics Database) is published quarterly 60 days (two months) after the reference quarter. Annual data (Statistics Database) is published 150 days (five months) after the reference year. Annual data (Publication) is published 230 days after the reference year.

Dissemination format and Release calendar Advance dissemination calendar

Main results of road transport statistics are available free of charge to all users. More detailed data can be obtained with subscription.  At the release data road transport statistics is available to all users at the same time.

Official statistics (News releases and Statistics Database) are available on the website at 13.00 on the date announced in the release calendar.

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.

The results of road freight transport survey as a part of a press release are published quarterly 60 days after the reference quarterly. The example of the quarterly press release can be found under this link Press Relise

Publication “Transport in Latvia, 2022” includes chapter “Road transport” with data for 2021. The publication wiht data for 2022 will be available in our website  at 24 of Augus 2023. Publication with data for 2021:Publication "Transport in Latvia, 2022"  .

Quarterly data

TRK120c Freight traffic by road

Annual data

TRK010 Cargo traffic and cargo turnover by mode of transport

TRK020 Traffic of dangerous goods

TRK120 Freight traffic by road

TRK130 National freight transport by road in breakdown by regions (thsd tonnes)

TRK140 International road freight transport by country (thsd tonnes)

TRK150 Freight traffic by road by group of goods

The statistically protected microdata can be obtained for statistical-analytical purposes, and for scientific research purposes, where the analysis involves a public benefit.

If statistical data are not available in publications or in the CSB online data base, data users should send CSB an information request by e-mail info@csp.gov.lv.

https://stat.gov.lv/en/metadata/8138-freight-traffic

Not applicable

Road freight transport statistics are compiled by the competent national statistics authority. Data are collected and compiled in line with Regulation 70/2012, Regulation 1304/2007, Regulation 642/2004 and with the Code of Practice applicable to all processes for collecting and compiling European statistics.

The three main tools for the assessment of the quality of the aggregated road freight data are:

1. Methodological comparisons with the national surveys and the recommended methodology, including coverage of surveys, simplifying assumptions, register quality, sampling rate and response rate.
2. Precision calculations following Commission Regulation (EC) 642/2004 and changes in sample designe if necessary to improve precision
3. Benchmarking using different validation rules

Data quality can be assessed as high. There is a set of validation rules and quality checks put in place, which detect various types of issues. In case of any issues detected, the data providers are contacted to provide explanations or/and revise the data accordingly.

Quarterly, Eurostat provides a data quality report with a summary of the main findings affecting quality as well as showing the solution adopted and the materiality of the existing differences.

International data users:

Eurostat;

United Nation;

International Transport Forum.

National data users:

Ministry of Transport;

Bank of Latvia;

Public administration;

Students;

Mass media.

Not applicable

As road freight statistics are based on sample surveys, the completeness of the data decreases as the detail of breakdowns increases. Therefore it is impossible to publish more detailed quarterly information. Quarterly is published main data (tonnes and tkm by type of transport) only. Detailed information (by type of goods, dangerous goods, by loading/unloading country, national transport by NUTS 3 level) is published on yearly bases only.

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.

Over-coverage rate

Q1  0.02 

Q2  0.01

Q3  0.02

Q4  0.02

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

All the statistics required by the provisions of the Regulation 70/2012 are transmitted to Eurostat 5 months after the reference quarter. 

Revised previous quarters are transmitted at the same time when new quarterly datasets are transmitted.

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

Comparable time series are available from 1997.

The data have not been compared between domains.

Not applicable.

Cost are not systematically collected.

There is query in the questionnaire to indicate the time (in minutes) for completion it. Average response burden on respondents in 2020 was:

Q1 17 minutes

Q2 18 minutes

Q3 16 minutes

Q4 18 minutes

The results are published quarterly 60 days after the reference quarter. At the same time previous quarter data are revised and published.

The policy described in 17.1 is fully implemented.

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 2022:

Q1 74.4 %

Q2 69 %

Q3 69 %

Q4 65.9 %

The survey is carried out throughout the entire year.

The time period for collecting data on each statistical unit is one week, the time units covered in a year are mostly 52 weeks

Annual data are summed up from the quarterly data.

Sampling methodology

Statistical unit:

Tractive vehicle

Types of units excluded:

Special purpose vehicles such as truck cranes, fire-fighters vehicles, platform lorries, road maintenance vehicles, border guards’ vehicles and other special purpose vehicles.

Vehicles older than 25 years.

Vehicles with load capacity less than 3.5 tonnes.

Starting with 2017, special concrete mixers are included in the survey in the list of special lorries.

Time unit:

1 week

Time units of 2022 included in the survey:

All (52 weeks), 13 weeks each quarter

Stratification:

The sample for one month (5 weeks within the first month of each quarter and 4 weeks within the second and third month of each quarter) is obtained using a single stage stratified systematic sampling.

The vehicles selected in sample for one month will be not sampled for six, nine or twelve sequence months, in order to reduce the workload for respondents.

For the estimation of averages, totals, ratios and percentages the so-called Horvitz-Thompson estimator is used. It means that the probability for each vehicle to be included into the sample must be calculated.

For every survey month the inclusion probability of a vehicle in the sample is calculated as a ratio between the number of vehicles that were included in the sample and did respond and the total number of vehicles in the stratum, i.e., the number of vehicles that had valid technical examination certificates in the survey month. This means that within each stratum the responding vehicles represent the non-responding ones of the same stratum, too.

The estimates of totals and means are obtained first for each survey month and each stratum separately. The estimates of population totals and population means (or domain totals and domain means) are obtained by summing up or calculating the weighted sum over all strata and over all survey months of the corresponding strata estimates.

 (1) European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road

Recording of weight of goods:

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

Estimation of maximum permissible laden weight:

Maximum permissible laden weight is estimated by adding load capacity and basic weight.

Calculation of weighting factors:

                                            M

Weighting factor  =  --------------------

                                        S + S’

M = mean of population between the beginning and the end of the reference month.

S = number of questionnaires used in analysis (in a stratum, during the reference period).

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

Recording journey data sent to Eurostat

The questionnaire has 2 parts: one part for journeys with 1 to 4 stops and other for journeys with 5 and more stops.

Single journey is journey when goods are loaded and then unloaded. Multi stop journey is journey, when goods are loaded then have some stops to load/unload goods and at the end all goods are unloaded. Each stop is recorded separately.

If journey has 5 or more stops or collection/delivery journeys they are recorded as one. Such journeys have 5 types:

• 5 and more stops with goods are only loaded
• 5 and more stops with goods are only unloaded
• Number of stops with goods are loaded are equal to number of stops with goods are loaded
• Number of stops with goods are loaded are more than number of stops with goods are loaded
• Number of stops with goods are loaded are less than number of stops with goods are loaded

Depending on the number of stops, the type of journey is determined and tonnes and tkm are calculated based on the type of journey, respectively.

Optional variables covered:

• Vehicle empty kilometres
• Type of cargo
• Vehicle operator’s NACE category of activity
• Axle configuration
• Degree of loading of the vehicle

Additional variables collected compared to the legal requirements:

Not applicable

A1. Vehicle-related variables:

• possibility of using vehicles for combined transport (NO)
• axle configuration according to the nomenclature defined in the Regulation on road transport statistics (YES - A2)
• vehicle operator’s NACE Rev. 2 at class level (four-digit level) (YES)

A2. Journey-related variables:

• 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)
• 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 (YES)

National level :

There are warning questions and error validations presented in a form of screen messages during the data entry. All errors should be corrected during the data entry. The Eurostat validation rules also are included in the data validation process.

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.

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 2022-2024.

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.

Road freight data are not seasonally adjusted.

Road freight transport data are collected, compiled and published in full accordance with the requirements of the Regulations.