Statistics Norway 

Department of Business and environmental statistics - Division for Energy, environmental and transport statistics

Statistics Norway P.O. Box 1400 Rasta NO-2225 Kongsvinger

The purpose of the survey is to describe the Norwegian-registered vehicles’ transport performance, and to help identify transport patterns in Norway and abroad. 

The data collection follows the provisions of the following legal acts:

National:

The Statistics Act of June 21, 2019 number 32 

EU:

Regulation (EU) 70/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road as amended in Council Regulation (EU) 517/2013. 

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 )", . The standard for transported goods "Standard goods classification for transport statistics 2007, NST 2007" has been used in the survey of lorries since the 1st quarter of 2008.
• 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 cover the following road freight transport operations by Norwegian-registered heavy goods vehicles:

• 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 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.

Enterprises are stratified by size. The size of an enterprise is defined by number of lorries it owns. This size measure defines selection probabilities. The sample is divided in six size classes.

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.

The survey population consists of Norwegian-registered lorries in vehicle groups from 320 to 381 in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s motor vehicle register, with a carrying capacity of 3.5 tonnes and over, up to 35 tonnes in total weight and less than 30 years old. Vehicles which belong to an enterprise for which it is not possible to assign an organisation number are removed from the population before the sample is drawn. The total population consists of about 36 000 goods vehicles.

The data provided are goods vehicles registered in the declaring country uniquely. It is also possible to present the data by county. 

 All data sets have been provided according to the legal act (with no derogations) starting from the 2003 reference year.

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 of the reportinge enterprises is one week. Statistics Norway aggregates the reported week to quarterly data and provides these aggregated data to Eurostat. 

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:

• The Statistics Act of June 21, 2019 number 32 

European level: 

• REGULATION (EU) N° 70/2012  

National level :

The Statistics Act of June 21, 2019 number 32 

The statistics are primarily used by public authorities and research institutions for transport planning and in transport models.

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:

• The data collected is used in accordance with:

           The Statistics Act of June 21, 2019 number 32  

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.

The data collected is used in accordance with the Statistics Act.

The procedures with regard to statistical confidentiality folllows the Handbook on Statistical Disclosure Control (2010) and the The Statistics Act of June 21, 2019 number 32 

EU country semi-aggregated "data exchange tables" that Eurostat submit back to the reporting countries (Article 3(2) of Regulation 6/2003) are treated as if they were confidential: encrypted transmission through eDAMIS, restricted access to data in the reporting countries, publication of results by the reporting countries only if a value is based on more than 10 vehicle records. 

The figures on the carriage of goods by Norwegian lorries are published about 16 weeks after the end of the reporting quarter. At least three months’ advance notice is given in the statistics calendar.

The figures on the carriage of goods by foreign-registered lorries to/from and in Norway are retrieved from Eurostat and published annually in October.

Overview of planned releases: Calendar.

No external users have access to statistics before they are published and available to everyone at 08.00 hrs on Statistics Norway’s website, ssb.no: Carriage of goods by lorry.

At least three months’ advance notice is given in the statistics calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s most important principles for safeguarding the equal treatment of users (the principle of equal treatment).

The tables consist of quarterly and annual data.

Quarterly data are updated quarterly. Annual data are updated together with 4th quarterly data updates.

The figures are published about 15 weeks after the end of the reporting quarter.

Publication of statistic Road goods transport by lorries is done through our website: Carriage of goods by lorry.

The results can be found in the Statbank: https://www.ssb.no/en/statbank/list/godstrans.

When requested microdata is made available for researchers. 

Microdata can only be utilised by recognised researchers for a limted time and for a specific project. Identifiers are replced by fictitious numbers belonging to each specific research project. 

Not applicable. 

National characteristics of surveys, conducted in the reporting countries in 2017, 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.

Not available in English. 

This document gives a general description of Statistics Norway's quality management assurance framework: https://www.ssb.no/en/befolkning/artikler-og-publikasjoner/quality-work-in-statistics-norway.

Data quality can be assessed as reasonably 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 enterprises are contacted to provide explanations or/and revise the data accordingly. Data are checked for consistency with earlier periods and indirectly compared to the developement in other statistics.

Annually, Eurostat provides a data quality report with a summary of the main findings affecting quality.

The statistics are primarily used by public authorities and research institutions for transport planning and in transport models. Transport companies, transport planners and consultancy firms are also important user groups, as well as business organisations. Internally in Statistics Norway, the data is included in the calculations of domestic transport performance.

Meetings with the most important users are conducted regularly. 

The statistics complies with the requirements of the regulation. 

The questionnaire has been thoroughly reviewed, including by users, and many unclear questions and other ambiguities have been weeded out in this process. The questionnaire is continually improved through cooperation with and feedback from reporting enterprises. 

The survey is arranged in such a way that the lorry owner records all driving every day for a specific week. If the vehicle use is not noted every day, journeys may be forgotten when completing the questionnaire. Furthermore, a vehicle may be used by several drivers, so the person completing the questionnaire may not have a full overview of the use of the vehicle during the survey period. There is considerable contact with the enterprises involved in this survey.

It is assumed that any measurement and processing errors have not led to systematic errors in the results.

In this survey, sampling errors occur when selecting which vehicles to include. Stratifying the population before selection is intended to minimise sampling errors. The survey will have coverage errors due to delays in updating the motor vehicle register, which is used for selecting the sample. For vehicles that are sold, deregistered or scrapped just before or during the reporting quarter, the data will not be updated. The weighting that is carried out aims to correct this type of coverage error. There are also coverage errors in the data for vehicles that are driven abroad. The calibration of the total figures for imported and exported tonnage carried with the external trade statistics, which was introduced in the 1st quarter of 2006, aims to correct for the incomplete overview of enterprises and vehicles used in international transport. The calibration produces good-quality figures for total imported and exported quantities but can lead to skewed figures at country and type of goods level.

In addition to coverage errors, there will be uncertainties related to the adjustment for under-reporting. Quantitative measurements of sampling errors and other sources of error (standard errors) are not published.

Non-responses in the lorry survey will either relate to vehicles for which we were unable to contact the owner due to the addressee being unknown, and where the vehicle has not been registered as having the number plates confiscated, or to owners who fail to respond and incur a compulsory fine. The non-response rate is about 13 per cent. Non-response leads to a participation bias and adds to the uncertainty caused by sampling errors.

Responses in the questionnaire are sometimes incomplete, and in some cases, this means that the questionnaire cannot be used. This can occur when the respondent has not included all the journeys that were carried out during the reporting period (for example, only entering one journey with an empty load or filling out the questionnaire for only one day during the reporting period).

Data are normally updated once each quarter. Data are published about 15 weeks after the end of the reporting 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.

Statistics Norway's methodology is based on the Road freight transport methodology. The definitions are generally the same as those presented in the manual. For this reason, the geographical coherence of the Norwegian road freight statistics is generally good.

Despite changes in the structure and implementation of the survey, it is possible to follow the main trends in the lorries’ transport performance dating back to 1963. The historical statistics give some key figures from the previous 5-yearly surveys, and the quarterly statistics date back to 1993.

The tables with results from the lorry surveys published before the 1st quarter of 2000 are not directly comparable with the tables published between the 1st quarter of 2000 and the 4th quarter of 2002. This is because the goods vehicles group with a carrying capacity between 1 and 3.5 tonnes is not included from the 1st quarter of 2000. Apart from the fact that the small lorries are no longer included in the survey, the results are comparable at the vehicle level. Tables have been published which show the transport performance of the vehicle groups that were taken out of the survey.

Improvements were made in the 1st quarter of 2003 to the methodology used in the survey, and a new questionnaire was drawn up. The results from 2003 will therefore not be directly comparable with the results from before 2003. Nevertheless, even with the change, the main trends in the lorries’ transport performance can still be followed over time.

The methodology for weighting figures for journeys abroad was changed in the 1st quarter of 2006. The change entailed calibrating the figures from the external trade statistics on imported and exported tonnage carried. Figures for international journeys before and after 2006 are therefore not directly comparable.

From the 1st quarter of 2007, the sample was reduced from 2 400 to 1 800 vehicles per quarter. The reduction was generally only of significance for the international category, which was halved from 1 200 to 600 vehicles. This followed the introduction of an annual survey of which vehicles are likely to be used for journeys abroad by companies that are licensed to carry out such activity.

From the 1st quarter of 2018 the sample was increased to 1 900 vehicles.

New stratification and sampling plans were devised in the 3rd quarter of 2015. The method is described in "18. Statistical processing". This change is not expected to affect the results to any great extent.

A completely new questionnaire based on the general Norwegian reporting system for enterprises (Altinn) was introduced in the 1st quarter of 2016. At the same time, the estimation routines were improved. This change means that comparisons with previous quarters must be made with a degree of caution and that the main variables are not directly comparable going backwards in time. A new method for reporting types of goods may have led to differences in the types of goods classification. For example, it seems that less is reported under general cargo and other goods, which may indicate that this group is used as a miscellaneous item to a lesser extent than before. There also seems to have been a shift from self-transport to rental transport, a correction that seems to be more in line with what the transport industry itself estimates.

The nature of the road freight market differs considerable from that of other transport modes. Coherence cross domain is therefore challenging. 

Despite changes in the structure and implementation of the survey, it is possible to follow the main trends in the lorries’ transport performance dating back to 1963. The historical statistics give some key figures from the previous 5-yearly surveys, and the quarterly statistics date back to 1993.

The total number of vehicles which the enterprises report for is about 6.500.

Consequently, about 6.500 person-hours can be used as a careful estimate of the total response burden of the Norwegian road freight statistics. Statistics Norway works continually on improving the questionnaire to reduce the response burden. 

Data are revised on the basis of detected errors. 

Revisions are made when deemed necessary. 

Sampling register used for the survey

Name of register:

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s motor vehicle register

Name of organisation who maintains the register:

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration

Frequency of update:

Daily

Frequency of access to draw the samples:

Once a quarter

Arrangements for accessing the register:

Through the Statistics Act § 2-2, 2-3 we are authorized to get copies of the register. The data are forwarded from the Directorate of Roads to Statistics Norway at specified dates of deliveries. 

The dates are approximately the same for each survey year. The early dates of access for each quarter are stipulated in order to make up the sampling frame, draw a sample, giving a label to the web questionnaires and sending out the forms in due time before the survey period.

Information obtained from the register:

Vehicle Register records most of the information registered on a specific vehicle, about 50 variables. In addition, information about the owner of the vehicle and about the registration of the vehicle is collected.

Used in stratification: Estimated yearly driving distance by PVI and vehicle classification according to The Register of Vehicles.

Procedure for reminders:

First reminder: one week after the due date, a reminder is sent to all those who have not responded. The letter has information about the consequences of not responding and gives a new due date one week later to avoid the compulsory fine.

Second reminder: three-four weeks after the deadline on the last letter, those who have still not responded are reported to the Norwegian National Collection Agency that fines them.

Weekly.

Sampling methodology

Statistical unit:

Vehicle

Types of units excluded:

Vehicles used for training purposes (owned by driving schools) and other kinds of driving Vehicles not considered to be freight transport such as roadwork, snow clearing, relocation of circus- or fairground carriages etc are excluded.

Vehicles more than 30 years old, vehicles with a carrying capacity of less than 3.5 tonnes, and vehicles with a total weight of 35 tonnes or more.

Time unit:

1 week

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

13 weeks

Stratification:

Stratified sampling is used. 

The sampling plan was reorganised in the 3rd quarter of 2015, mainly because the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s register of community licences was discontinued. This had been an important source for identifying vehicles that were assumed to be used abroad. Furthermore, there had long been a desire to reduce the reporting burden on big companies with large fleets of vehicles. At the same time, mileage data obtained from vehicle controls (PKK-data) was improved and used to establish the new sampling plan. This data from meter readings is updated quarterly for the lorries in the target group.

In December 2017, a minor adjustment was made to the sample design, with a view to extracting more vehicles used for international transport.

The sample is selected in two steps.

Step 1: Sample of companies engaged in road haulage.

Step 2: Sample of lorries within the selected companies.

The lorries are distributed into 12 categories, based on annual mileage (3 groups) and vehicle class derived from the vehicle group (4 classes).

Approximately 1,900 lorries  belonging to companies engaged in freight transport are selected every quarter to participate in the survey.

Recording of weight of goods:

Gross weight of goods is collected; containers and swap bodies are excluded, but pallets might be included.

Recording of journey data sent to Eurostat:

Single stop: In case more than one type of commodity is transported, the respondent is allowed to record it as mixed goods.

Multi stop: Multi-stop journeys consists of several consignments.

Collection/delivery: Respondents are allowed to decide if the journey can be regarded as a collection and/or distribution round (c/d).

If the journey consists of five or more stops the respondent is allowed to give information on the journey as a whole.

If the journey is considered as a c/d-round the respondent is asked to indicate the average weight for the c/d as a whole, the total kilometres driven during the c/d and the main commodity group. Statistics Norway does not calculate the number of collection stops.

In the instructions to our respondents it is stated that the c/d-round is considered to start at the first loading point and finished at the last unloading point. The respondents are asked to add a unladen journey before or after the first or last c/d-round. 

Estimation of maximum permissible laden weight:

The maximum permissible laden weight is estimated by computing the average of maximum permissible laden weight values for lorries having the same vehicle classification.

Calculation of weighting factors:

Weighting of the sample takes place in six steps. In the first step, sample weights are calculated based on the ratio of the number of vehicles in the population and the number of vehicles selected in each vehicle category.

In the second step, these weights are adjusted using known population totals in different subpopulations derived from an updated vehicle population.

In the third step, the calibration weights of the vehicles that were driven in the survey week are weighted according to a set of factors, based on a sample-based calibration model. This step is performed in order to compensate for the lack of information from vehicles that participated in the survey but were not driven during the reporting period.

In the fourth step, a further adjustment is made to ensure consistency between the estimates of the tonnage carried from the international part of the lorry survey and quarterly figures from the external trade statistics on imports and exports. This adjustment is made for vehicles that transported goods internationally in the reporting week.

In step five, the sample weights for vehicles that only transport goods domestically are further adjusted to ensure consistency between the sample estimates for these vehicles and the associated population totals.

In the final step, the sample weights are multiplied by 13 in order to convert the results from a reporting week to a quarter.

Additional (optional) variables collected compared to the legal requirements:

A1. Vehicle-related variables:

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

A2. Journey-related variables:

• axle configuration according to the nomenclature defined in the Regulation on road transport statistics (YES)
• 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)
• 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) (YES)

A3. Goods-related variables:

• type of freight (Cargo types) as defined in the Regulation (YES)

Environmental impact-related variables: none

National level :

Time series checks.                  

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.

Please see "18.3. Data collection". 

Road freight data are not seasonally adjusted.

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