Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

1. Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics International Conference on Survey Methods in Transport Simo Pasi, Eurostat G5 ‘Transport statistics’

2. Contents • Harmonisation and comparability • Institutional context • Decision making process • Road freight statistics • Supportive rules and tools • Common classifications • Reference manuals • Data processing tools provided by Eurostat • “Help desk” • Management by standard error • Special issues of harmonisation • Case: Fuel consumption of trucks • Conclusion Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

3. Harmonisation and comparability • harmonizeor–nise (transitive verb) 1. bring into harmony • 2. cause to agree 3.reconcile • compare (transitive verb) 1.notice or point out likenesses and • differences of 2. liken 3. make comparative or superlative of • (adjective or adverb) (Collins compact dictionary) • *** • Quality of statistical data: data should be relevant, accurate, timely, accessible, coherent and comparable: • - Length of comparable time-series • - Number of comparable time-series • - Rate of differences in concepts and measurement from European norms • - Asymmetries for statistics mirror flows • (from “Doc. ESTAT/02/Quality/2005/9/Quality Indicators”) Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

4. Institutional context • Eurostat is part of the European Statistical System (ESS) • ESS = Eurostat + National Statistical Institutes of EU Member States • Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission, similarly to • DG Energy and Transport, • DG Competition, • DG Environment etc. • Eurostat, as part of the European Commission (having the “right of initiative”) and together with the NSI’s, can make proposals of EU statistical legislation (regulations, directives, decisions) Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

5. Decision making process Lobbyists UNECE, ITF, OECD Member States Commission DGs Staff Eurostat Working Groups Gentlemen’s agreement “Comitology” Co-decision Task Forces Consultative Committee on Transport Statistics (CCST) Statistical Programme Committee (SPC) European Commission OJ§ EuropeanParliament Council of Ministers Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

6. Council Regulation n° 1172/98 on road freight statistics Vehicle record • vehicle age • activity (branch) • vehicle-kms • extrapolation factor Journey record 2 • vehicle characteristics • place of loading and unloading • transit countries • loading & unloading to another mode of transport • - weight of goods • - distance • - tonne-kms Goods record 2 • type of goods • dangerous goods • type of cargo • place of loading and unloading • tonnes • tonne-km • distance Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

7. Supportive rules and tools Common classifications • Often Commission Regulations, but not always • Commodity classification: “Nomenclature uniforme de marchandises pour les statistiques de transport” (NST): NST (1961), NST/R, NST 2007, … • Geographic classification: “Nomenclature des unités territoriales pour statistiques” (NUTS): NUTS 1999, NUTS 2003, NUTS 2006,… • Classification of Economic Activities: NACE rev.1.0, NACE rev.1.1, NACE rev.2.0, … • Classification of type of cargo: United Nations Recommendation 21 Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

8. Road freight transport methodology Volume 1Reference manual for the implementation of Council Regulation N° 1172/98 on statistics on the carriage of goods by road(in English, German and French) Road freight transport methodology Volume 2Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in Member States and Candidate Countries(in English only) Supportive rules and tools Reference manuals Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

9. Supportive rules and tools Data processing tools provided by Eurostat (1/3) • The two classifications that impose the biggest burden to national statistical authorities: • Type of goods (NST/R => NST 2007) • Loading and unloading places (NUTS-3 regions) • Respondents identify: • Type of goods by writing its name in questionnaire • For international transport, customs document can be of use (single administrative document, Intrastat declaration) • For dangerous goods, the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR) can be used to classify dangerous substances • Loading and unloading places by writing place names or postal codes in questionnaires. Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

10. Data processing tools provided by Eurostat (2/3) Supportive rules and tools • Eurostat provides reporting countries with tools that aim at facilitating and harmonising the handling of survey data: • Correspondence tables between NST 2007 on one hand and Combined Nomenclature (CN), Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the European Economic Community (CPA) and ADR classification on the other hand. • List of localities and postal codes mapped to NUTS-3 areas: Index of Locations for Statistics in Europe (ILSE). Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

11. Supportive rules and tools Data processing tools provided by Eurostat (3/3) Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

12. Supportive rules and tools “Help desk” • Eurostat receives and answers methodological questions related to road freight surveys in the reporting countries Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

13. Management by standard error (1/2) • Legislation on which the road freight survey is based does not impose: • Sampling frame • Sample size • Stratification • Survey period • Instead, reporting countries should achieve an acceptable percentage standard error for main indicators in their sample surveys (Commission Regulation N° 642/2004) – means are to be decided by the reporting countries, not by Eurostat. Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

14. Management by standard error (2/2) total and national Annual - tonnes - tonne-km - vehicle-km 95% 5% Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

15. Special issues of harmonisation • Coverage of surveys in reporting countries (Article 1(2) (b) of Council Regulation 1172/98): • “…shall not apply to…by means of…vehicles belonging to central or local public administrations…”=> differences in how, for example, waste transport is treated between reporting countries • At least vehicles with loading capacity above 3.5 t or maximum permissible laden weight above 6.0 t=> some countries but not all include light goods vehicles • Type of cargo – are “swap-bodies” classified as “large freight containers” or “other freight containers”?=>In future, all countries should classify containers purely on the basis of their size – this is not the case currently. • Extra-EU vehicles are not covered by these surveys; they still play different roles in different reporting countries. Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

16. Case: Fuel consumption of trucks (1/3) • Hypothesis: Collection of harmonised fuel consumption data of heavy goods vehicles in the sample surveys based on Regulation n°1172/98. • What would be required to introduce such new variable? • Currently, only tonnes, tonne-km and vehicle-km data are collected in the European survey. • Some countries (CY, EL, HR, NL, RO, SI, SK and UK) already have a question on fuel consumption in their survey questionnaires, but data are not sent to Eurostat. Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

17. Case: Fuel consumption of trucks (2/3) • The approach: • The need for data should be real, expressed (in written) by other Eurostat units, DG Environment, DG Energy and Transport. • Eurostat would discuss the issue of data availability unofficially with some reporting countries. • A proposal modifying the Annex A, with definitions and modification of Commission Regulations n° 2163/2001 (data transmission), n°6/2003 (dissemination) and n°642/2004 (precision standard) would be drafted by Eurostat. Possibly a Task Force could be organised to better involve the reporting countries. • Eurostat would bring the proposal to discussion in a road freight statistics working group (next mid-2009). • On the basis of discussion, a decision might be proposed in a forthcoming CCST meeting. • If approved by a large majority, the proposal would be brought to formal decisions making by the Statistical Programme Committee and the Commission. • A legal act would be published in the Official Journal. Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

18. Case: Fuel consumption of trucks (3/3) Lobbyists UNECE, ITF, OECD Member States Commission DGs Staff Eurostat Working Group Mid 2009 “Comitology” Task Force 1st half 2009 CCST End 2009 SPC 1st half 2010 OJ§ European Commission Mid 2010 Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics

19. Conclusions • Eurostat, as part of the European Commission and the European Statistical System, has a heavy machinery for harmonising statistical data. This has both positive and negative aspects: Cons (-) • Rigidity to adopt for new requirements; almost everyone has to agree • Difficulty to find ‘fair’ criteria for big and small countries (in sample surveys, small and big countries burden is almost equal) Pros (+) • Harmonised rules in all reporting countries should contribute to harmonised data • Possibility to support implementation by means of common tools • Space for national variants Harmonisation and Comparability of European Union Road Freight Statistics