Freight Data - A Transportation Perspective September 2010 Michael Sprung – FHWA, Office of Freight Management and Oper

1. Freight Data -A Transportation PerspectiveSeptember 2010Michael Sprung – FHWA, Office of Freight Management and Operations

2. Truck Transportation (NAICS 484) – Est. Revenue for Employer Firms: 2008

3. To inform policy and investment,we need to understand • How does freight movement affect congestion, infrastructure wear, freight carriers, safety, and the environment? • How does congestion, expected and unexpected delay, and cost affect freight movement? • How does the economy adjust in productivity, shifting activity among regions, and global competitiveness? • How will policies and investments affect freight movement and its consequences?

4. An Understanding of Freight Transportation • How much& what freight moves from place to place? • Weight • Value • Commodity • Where & how is freight moving? • Origin & destination • Route used • Mode of transportation • When is freight carried? • Season • Time of day

5. FHWA Freight Transportation Data • Freight Analysis Framework (FAF): • A database of regional freight flows by tons and value for all modes, with 30-year forecasts, and annual provisional updates • An assignment of average number of trucks to individual highway segments on the national network • Freight Performance Measures (FPM) Program • 500,000 + trucks and trailers • Travel time and travel time reliability for 25 Interstate Highways • Crossing time and crossing time reliability at major border crossings

6. FAF3 Details • Value & weight for all domestic, export, & import shipments • 7 Domestic modes (truck, rail, water, air, multiple modes & mail, pipeline, and other & unknown) • 7 Foreign modes (same as domestic modes) • 123 Domestic regions • 8 International regions (Canada, Mexico, & 6 groupings of countries based on UN definitions) • 43 Commodity classes (2-digit SCTG codes)

7. Canada Eastern Asia Europe South, Central Africa & Western Asia South-Eastern Asia Rest of Mexico And Oceana Americas FAF3 Regions

8. Trucks on the Network

9. FAF3 Tons and Value by Mode: 2007

10. International Trade as a Share of Tons and Value by Domestic Mode

11. Major FAF3 Data Sources • Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) • TransBorder Freight Data • Foreign Trade Statistics • Waterborne Commerce Statistics • Port Import/Export Reporting Service (PIERS) • Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey • Highway Performance Monitoring System • National Transportation Atlas Database • Transportation Satellite Accounts

12. Data Gaps • Domestic-leg of international trade flows • True origin of exports • True destination of imports • Transshipments • Trade between two foreign countries using the U.S. transportation system (ports, highways, borders, etc.) • Some progress made in this area with Canadian and Mexican transshipments from foreign trade data.

13. FAF Summary • FAF provides a comprehensive national picture of freight flows and baseline forecasts to support policy studies • FAF shows states and regions who their major trading partners are with the volumes and sources of through traffic at a corridor level • Local specific analysis requires supplemental data collection to provide local detail

14. Freight Performance Measures Program • Approximately 500,000 probe vehicles • 340,000,000 truck positions (e.g. telemetry points) monthly • over 4,000,000,000 positions annually • Partnership between FHWA and ATRI with a cooperative data governance model • FHWA sets general contractual guidelines on key business areas and management decisions it intends to use the data for • Congestion and Bottleneck Identification • Understanding Freight System Performance • FHWA and ATRI monitor requests for data and determine cooperatively who should have access to data and at what level of aggregation

15. Freight System Performance

16. Measuring Border Crossing Delay Trip origin A Diversion option to alternate crossing B Final approach to border crossing (beyond the end of queue) C End of queue D Stop bar E Arrival at primary inspection F Exit primary inspection G Exit secondary inspection H I Trip Destination Canada U.S. Border

17. ‘Ideally’ Data Would Be: • Timely • Accurate • Relevant • Complete • Obtainable • Clear • Consistent • Harmonized • Affordable

18. Freight Data Challenges • Definitions of freight transportation terms are not always harmonized: • Commodity Classifications • Mode Definitions • ‘Available data’ must often be used as a proxy for ‘Needed data’ • Trade (flow of $) used in lieu of international freight flows • Value-to-weight ratios used where $ or tonnage data are incomplete • Lack of authoritative data sources and management agencies • Issues with comparability and quality when data must be sought from many different transportation and trade data collection efforts

19. We rely on customer feedback • Do the estimates we publish align with other sources you use? • What would make existing freight data resources more usable? • What are the major freight issues you and your partners are trying to address?

20. Thank You! DOT Freight Website: http://www.freight.dot.gov/ Without Data It’s Just An Opinion.