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The Road to Better Transport Infrastructure

Detailed information on the movement of freight by trucks has not been collected by the ABS since 2000/01. Following a feasibility study in 2012 into options for the ABS to once again collect detailed road freight information, the ABS received confirmation of external funding for a Freight Movement Survey (FMS) in January 2013. While administrative data was investigated during the feasibility study, the agreed proposal involved a sample survey collecting information from rigid and articulated trucks only. The road data obtained will complement that already available for rail, sea and air. The FMS 2013/14 will fill a critical statistical information gap and be used in decision making regarding transport infrastructure.

The FMS 2013/14 went into the field at the start of November 2013 and will collect information from registered owners relating to trip details including origins, destinations, distance travelled, load weight and commodity carried. Vehicles are selected with the respondents being asked to fill in a diary for a selected week of the reference period. The reference periods will cover a 12 month period ending October 2014.

The FMS will be run in conjunction with the Survey of Motor Vehicle Use (SMVU) 2013/14 which will be conducted over the same reference period. The SMVU collects information on the usage of vehicles over a specific four month period within the reference period. Half of the vehicles selected in the FMS will also be selected in the SMVU and will subsequently have data pertaining to the trips for a week as well as the usage of the vehicle over a four month period.

Respondent 'fatigue' was an issue with the previous FMS collection with trips reported in the latter half of the diary consistently being less than that reported in the first half of the diary period. The risk of this occurring for the current FMS have been mitigated by reducing the length of the diary period from two weeks down to one as well as the collecting of odometer readings from vehicles to ascertain whether the reporting in the diary is representative of the usage of the vehicle over a longer period.

The sample design of the FMS 2013/14 aimed to maximise the quality of the main data items of total distance travelled and tonnes kilometres (tonnes carried by distance travelled) at the national and state of registration levels. This should allow for acceptable quality for the major routes travelled across the country.

Investigations have been undertaken as to the best methodology to combine the FMS and SMVU components of the collections to produce the highest quality, coherent estimates from the information available.

Further Information
For more information, please contact Brett Frazer (07 3222 6028, brett.frazer@abs.gov.au)

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