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CHANGES TO THE SURVEY OF MOTOR VEHICLE USE

This information paper describes changes to the Survey of Motor Vehicle Use from the October 2007 reference period onwards. The Survey of Motor Vehicle Use is a sample survey conducted by the ABS to provide statistics on passenger vehicle, motor cycle, truck and bus use, for characteristics such as distance travelled, tonne-kilometres and fuel consumption. The survey includes all vehicles that were registered with a motor vehicle authority for road use at some stage during the 12 month reference period. Not included are caravans, trailers, tractors, plant and equipment, vehicles belonging to the defence services and vehicles with diplomatic or consular plates. Where they are registered as such, vintage and veteran cars were also excluded from the survey. The results of this survey are published in Survey of Motor Vehicle Use, Australia (cat. no. 9208.0) and Survey of Motor Vehicle Use: Data Cubes, Australia (cat. no. 9210.0.55.001).

From 31 October 2000 the survey has been conducted annually covering the twelve months ended 31 October, with the last complete survey conducted for the period 12 months ended 31 October 2007. Processing of the Survey of Motor Vehicle Use was discontinued in January 2008 due to budgetary constraints. The survey was recommenced to cover the November 2009 - October 2010 period.

The survey will now be conducted biennially (every two years). In order to improve relevance to users, the time period covered by the survey will be changed from 12 months ending 31 October and will now cover the 12 month period ending 30 June, aligning the period to a financial year. The current survey (with outputs to be released in August 2011) will be the last collection using the existing 12 month time period ending 31 October. The next survey will adopt the new time frame and will commence in July 2011.

The sample used for the Survey of Motor Vehicle Use is taken from the Motor Vehicle Census (cat. no. 9309.0). There will also be a change in the reference period for this collection. For further information refer to the Information Paper: Changes to the Motor Vehicle Census Date (cat. no. 9309.0.55.002).


Summary of time line changes