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TRANSPORT STATISTICS

OBJECTIVES

The Transport Program is responsible for producing statistics on transport and transport related activities and undertakes a coordination and liaison role between producers and users of transport data.

The main clients of the program include various Australian government agencies, in particular: the Department of Infrastructure and Transport; the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics; the Commonwealth Grants Commission; the Treasury; as well as state and territory government agencies; the National Road Transport Commission; and industry and academic organisations.

Statistics from the transport collections are used to assist in policy and planning deliberations by governments and transport organisations, particularly in the areas of long term planning, the regulation of road transport operators, and for accident exposure and fuel use analysis. Information about the vehicle fleet provides a measure of the stock of vehicles registered for road use at a point in time and supports the study of links between demographic change and vehicle ownership and use. Statistics on new motor vehicle sales provide an economic indicator of consumer confidence.


OUTPUTS

The outputs of the program are the monthly publication of Sales of New Motor Vehicles, Australia (ABS cat. no. 9314.0), a major economic indicator; biennial publication of the Survey of Motor Vehicle Use, Australia (ABS cat. no. 9208.0); and annual publication of Motor Vehicle Census, Australia (ABS cat. no. 9309.0).


DEVELOPMENTS

The main medium-term developments in the program are to:

• expand the Survey of Motor Vehicle Use 2014 to enable collection of road freight data - due August 2015
• continue to pursue the development of nationally consistent road freight statistics sourced from administrative records - ongoing
• support the other activities of the Australian Transport Data Action Network as it progresses the Data Action Plan for the Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure, including options for further developing a Transport Satellite Account - ongoing
• provide administrative support for the maintenance of the Transport Metadata Portal - ongoing.