SKSO (Štatistický úrad Slovenskej republiky (Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic))

BUSINESS STATISTICS SECTION

CROSS-SECTIONAL STATISTICS DEPARTMENT

STATISTICAL OFFICE OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

LAMAČSKA CESTA 3/C

840 05 BRATISLAVA 45

SLOVAKIA

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 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).

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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 or the local unit (a site of a company, as identified in the national business register).

As the total number of statistical units (most commonly vehicles) is very large, sample surveys are carried out to collect information.  

The data provided are goods vehicles registered in the declaring country uniquely.

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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 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 Programme of State Statistical Surveys

European level: 

• REGULATION (EU) N° 70/2012   

National level :

The required variables are sent to Eurostat in TXT format and to other national information system needs organizations. 

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:

• Protection of statistical confidentiality (protection of confidential statistical data) is a system of interrelated measures in the legislative, methodological, organizational, technical, security and personnel fields, preventing the leakage of confidential statistical data or the premature publication of statistical information. Authorities performing state statistics are obliged to ensure the protection of confidential statistical data from misuse in the manner set out in § 25a and § 29 and 30 of Act No. 540/2001 Coll. on State Statistics, as amended. The principles of the application of confidential statistical data protection are available on the website of the SO SR at: https://slovak.statistics.sk/wps/portal/ext/services/infoservis/confidential

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.

see 7.1

Road transport statistics is published at national level annually. 

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not applicable

Road transport statistics is published at national level annually. 

Not relevant

Yearbook of transport, posts and telecommunication

Databases

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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.

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The SO SR has a quality management system in place. The Quality Manual includes a description of the quality management system and the fulfillment of ISO 9001 requirements. The application of the Manual ensures that all activities that affect the quality of the products being produced are planned, managed, reviewed, evaluated and meet the requirements accepted in the order. The Quality Guide is available at: https://slovak.statistics.sk/wps/portal/ext/aboutus/key.documents/quality.declaration

The basis of the whole quality management system is the Code of Practice for European Statistics: https://slovak.statistics.sk/wps/portal/ext/aboutus/key.documents/code.of.practise

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.

The key users of road transport statistics collected according to the Regulation 70/2012 are:

Ministry of Transport

Universities and research institutions

Since 2009, the Statistical Office of the SR has been conducting customer satisfaction surveys with its products and services at two-year intervals. The aim of the surveys is to get information about the interest and opinions of users on providing and quality of statistical products and services. The information obtained is a valuable source for the further activities of the SO SR. The result of the satisfaction survey in 2017 is available on the website of the SO SR at (only in slovak language): https://slovak.statistics.sk/wps/portal/ext/aboutus/marketing/survey.of.satisfaction

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The SO SR makes great efforts to prevent the occurrence of errors in data and performs a thorough verification of data to detect errors.

Not applicable for road transport data collection.

To avoid non-selectable errors, i. errors in the process of collection and processing The SO SR has integrated logical and data controls in the integrated statistical information system at the level of micro-data as well as at the level of aggregated data that are performed during data collection and processing.

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.

There are no problems of comparability for road transport data collection with a very high data comparability across countries due to the common legal basis.

Comparable time series are available since January 2000.

Based on the results of these quarterly data, we make corrections to monthly estimates.

There are no deviations, statistical outputs are internally consistent.

It is estimated on the basis of the reporting unit of the time required to complete the form.

The revision policy governs the basic rules and general procedures by which the pre-drafted data is later revised as well as applied in revisions for other reasons. The revision policy and calendar is available on the SO SR website at:  https://slovak.statistics.sk/wps/portal/ext/products/revisions

The policy described in 17.1 is fully implemented.

Sampling register used for the survey

Name of register:

Vehicle Register and Register of operators

Name of organisation who maintains the register:

Ministry of Interior and Statistical Office

Frequency of update:

Permanently

Frequency of access to draw the samples:

Yearly

Arrangements for accessing the register:

Vehicle register: Annually taken over from administrative sources, Ministry of Interior. Sample survey is updated quarterly.

Operator’s register (administrator Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic) is being currently updated.

Identifier Code of operators is converted between register.

Information obtained from the register:

Vehicle register: Vehicle register mark, identifier of operators, type of vehicle, year of production, load capacity and date of input.

Operators register: Identifier of operators, type of operators, name of operators, settlement code, settlement name, street and number, ZIP code, NACE code and date of input.

Used in stratification: a low form of the vehicle owner (enterprise or tradesman), type of vehicle and loading capacity is used.

In the frame of sample survey the region is taking into sampling.

The region is not a criterion for strata.

Procedure for reminders:

Respondent has to send the filled questionnaire in written or electronic form to the Statistical Office within 8 days after the end of the surveyed week.

First reminder: If the respondent does not fulfil his obligation within the deadline, a first reminder is sent 2 weeks after the surveyed week.

Second reminder: Sent 2 weeks after the 1st reminder.

Reminders are automatically generated by the IT system according to the date of the surveyed week.

The response rate is adequate.

The frequency of collection is weekly, the results are processed quarterly.

Sampling methodology

Statistical unit:

Tractive vehicle

Types of units excluded:

None

Time unit:

1 week

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

All (13 weeks)

Stratification:

From survey in 2019 we have a new stratification :

Since 2017, the sample has been increased from 10 400 to 13 000 vehicles per year.

Recording of weight of goods:

Gross-gross weight of goods is collected, i.e. containers are included.

Estimation of maximum permissible laden weight:

Maximum permissible laden weight is estimated as 1.25 * loading capacity.

Calculation of weighting factors:

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.)

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

Environmental impact-related variables:

Type of fuel used and fuel consumption.

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)
• 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) 

National level :

Data validation is embedded in the program that collects and processes data. The following checks are distinguished when collecting data:
1- formal checks carried out automatically in the data collection process
2- informal controls to check the complexity and relationships between variables.            

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.

see 18.4

Road freight data are not seasonally adjusted.

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