Data collected about thevehiclefor the Council Regulation include the following (some of
this data is not obligatory for the first few years of operation of the Regulation):
• Age of vehicle (in years) since its first registration: In general this variable has
to relate to the date of first registration in the country carrying out the survey. Where a significant percentage of the vehicle stock has been imported second-hand from other countries, it may be impossible to collect data on the actual age of these vehicles.
• Possibility of using vehicle for combined transport: The classification and
coding of this vehicle had not been agreed at the time of the preparation of this manual. The aim of the variable is to identify those vehicles that are specifically designed for use in combined transport.
• Kilometres covered during survey period when loaded and (separately) when
empty: the kilometres covered when a vehicle is not carrying a load was an
optional variable when the Regulation was adopted. However, Eurostat hopes that most countries will find it possible to collect this information from the first year of collecting data under this Regulation.
• Reason for non-use: If no activity is reported it is essential to ask why. It is
important to know both the percentage of vehicles not working in an average week, and the reasons. However, this question may help deter the haulier from reporting activity during the week simply to avoid the chore of completing the questionnaire. One way to try to prevent this (as illustrated in the model questionnaire in section 4.2 of this chapter) is to ask the haulier to record the number of days in the survey week when the vehicle was not used and the reason why.
Other data variables which countries might find useful to collect for their own internal uses are:
• Fuel purchased during survey week: Very important as it enables estimates of
average fuel consumption to be made. Satisfactorily reported, but sometimes omitted.
• Vehicle’s mileage within last 12 months (or since vehicle acquired if less than
12 months): If traffic counts are available for a country, this variable provides a way
of estimating the amount of under-reporting of vehicle activity. Reported well; some evidence of rounding to thousands of kilometres.
• Body type of goods road motor vehicle: Useful in some countries if there is no
other source of information.
• Body type of trailer/semi-trailer: Useful in some countries where trailers are not
registered and there is no other source of information about the usage of different types of trailers.
• Type of fuel used: Useful in some countries if the survey covers small vehicles and
there is no other source of information.
Some of these data items (for example, date of first registration, body type, taxation class, type of fuel used) may be available from the vehicle licensing database from which the sample may be drawn. As has been mentioned previously in this chapter, such data items should be included in the questionnaire and the respondent asked to check that the data are correct.
CHAPTER 4. PREPARATION FOR THE SURVEY – QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
4.1.2.3 Data on journeys
During the survey period, a goods road transport vehicle (or vehicle combination of motor vehicle plus (semi-) trailer(s) - for the rest of this chapter the term "goods vehicle" will be used to refer to both a single vehicle or a combination) may make a number of journeys. These journeys will be either loaded (there are goods and/or waste material in the lorry, trailer or semi-trailer; waste material being treated as a particular type of goods) or unloaded (there are no goods or waste material in the road goods vehicle(s)).
A loaded journey is defined (see "Glossary for Transport Statistics" and Part B of this Manual) as starting when goods are first placed in a goods vehicle, the vehicle previously being empty, and ending when goods are unloaded from the vehicle and the vehicle is subsequently completely empty. A laden journey, therefore, can cover several basic transport operations; a basic transport operation being defined as the transport of one type of goods between its place of loading and its place of unloading.
Information on basic freight transport operations by road is collected on the basis of:
− either a description of each basic goods transport operation (with additional details
on unladen journeys),
− or a description of the journeys made by the vehicle in carrying out these basic
goods transport operations.
For the majority of journeys a laden journey represents one basic transport operation with:
− a single type of goods loaded (as classified to the 24 groups of the NST/R
classification)
− a single point of loading for the goods, and
− a single point of unloading for the goods.
In this case the two methods are equivalent.
However, several basic transport operations can be carried out during one laden journey because:
− there are several points of loading and/or unloading of the goods (limited in number
and normally no more than four to avoid placing an excessive burden on the respondent. There is separate treatment for "collection and/or distribution" journeys).
− and/or there are several different types of goods transported during the single laden
journey.
The various points of loading and unloading (up to four) need to be recorded in order to calculate the tonne-kilometres performed during the journey. Where countries record only the main type of goods carried, Eurostat accepts the loss of information due to this permitted simplification but requires Member States to make mention of this simplification in their communications to Eurostat.
The data items collected for journeys of up to four stops include the following:
• Day of week: Useful in examining policies aimed at restricting the movement of
lorries at weekends (strictly defined as the day upon which the journey started) as well as a check on the recording of all the vehicle activity during the survey reference period.
• Maximum permissible weight: Very important for analysis as it can determine vehicle taxation rate. May be available from administrative records but can vary according to whether a trailer is attached to the vehicle or the type of semi-trailer attached to a road tractor.
• Load capacity: Helpful for sample stratification, checking information on weight of
goods carried and for policy investigation purposes (e.g. those affecting vehicle weight); reported very accurately, well known by the haulier – if he carries a heavier load he will be overloaded and liable to prosecution.
• Number of axles: Important for policies concerning vehicle tax (axle loading
determines road wear and hence helps determine the relative amount of tax payable by vehicle having differing numbers of axles). The number of axles on the tractive vehicle and on the trailer/semi-trailer are recorded separately. If the vehicle tows two trailers the code appropriate for the total number of axles on all trailers should be used.
• Type of transport - hire or reward or own account.
• First place of loading/ last place of unloading of the goods: A computerised
gazetteer covering a single country (or the whole of Europe) is useful to determine where each location lies. The same software that provides the gazetteer also estimates the distance of the optimum route between the origin and destination. Useful for checking stage distances (see below).
• Countries crossed in transit (up to five).
• Places of loading/unloading if vehicle was transported by another means of
transport for part of its journey.
For eachstage of the journey:
• Weight of goods carried: The questionnaire must make it clear to the haulier
whether the weight of any packaging or the container is to be included or excluded.
• Whether vehicle fully loaded, not fully loaded, or empty (in terms of volume).
• Loaded (or empty) distance travelled: This can be checked by software that,
using a detailed description of the road network together with a comprehensive place name gazetteer, works out an optimum route. Actually, the main market for this computer software is road haulage companies.
4.1.2.4 Data on the goods
The following data should be collected about the goods carried on each journey:
• Type of goods carried: Haulier describes goods that are then coded by Statistical
Office staff to NST/R two digit groups. It is not recommended that hauliers be asked to code this data themselves as the codes are too numerous and the ability to check the quality of data returned is lost. Fairly well reported, although there is a tendency for the haulier to record ”Goods” (!) or ”Sundries”.
• Weight of goods carried: The questionnaire must make it clear to the haulier
whether the weight of any packaging or the container is to be included or excluded.
• Cargo type (how carried): Not well recorded; hauliers confuse type of vehicle (e.g.
tipper) and how the goods are carried on the vehicle.
CHAPTER 4. PREPARATION FOR THE SURVEY – QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
• Places of loading/unloading of the goods: A computerised gazetteer covering a
single country (or the whole of Europe) is useful to determine where each location lies. The same software that provides the gazetteer also estimates the distance of the optimum route between the origin and destination.
• Distance travelled: This can be checked by software that, using a detailed
description of the road network together with a comprehensive place name gazetteer, works out an optimum route.
4.1.2.5 Collection and delivery journeys
The haulier is not asked to supply details of every stage of a journey of four or more stops. For this type of journey it is not feasible to ask the transport operators to describe the individual transport operations. Instead, in a separate section of the questionnaire, he supplies the same data items as above but for the whole journey. ”Weight of goods” is replaced by ”Total weight of goods collected” and ”Total weight of goods delivered”. The ”Number of stops for delivery” and ”Number of stops for collection” are also to be recorded. This information allows a rather involved calculation to be made of the journey’s total tonne-kilometres.
4.1.2.6 Possible additional variables
Many other questions could be asked on freight activity questionnaires but are often omitted for a variety of reasons, mainly to reduce the burden of completing the questionnaire, or because it is thought that their data quality would be poor. Examples include:
• Make and model: If it were possible to record make and model, then this data
would be very useful to market researchers who could determine what kinds of road freight work were being undertaken by different makes of lorry. Make and model cannot easily be coded, but may be available from the administrative records from which the vehicle sample is drawn;
• Detailed vehicle data: Some information such as the number and type of lorries
fitted with ”road friendly” (air) suspension is not available from any source, but would be useful to policy makers, particularly those who are concerned with regulations governing the construction of goods vehicles. Such data would probably be readily available, but we do not collect it to avoid increasing the overall burden on hauliers;
• Motorway usage: Policy makers would like to know what type of goods are
transported on motorways (the proportion of goods vehicle mileage travelled on motorways can be obtained from traffic studies, but such studies cannot detect the commodities that are being carried). However, hauliers cannot realistically be asked to record separately distance travelled on motorways. However, it may be possible, if the computer software previously described (which calculates optimum routes) is developed, to have that software calculate motorway distance separately;
• Fleet size: In investigating the likely consequences of developments in road freight
policies that will affect small operators in a different way from large operators, it would be useful to know the size of the fleet of the sampled vehicle. That is, how many other vehicles does the owner of the sampled vehicle operate. In this way, analysis of road freight activity by fleet size could be produced. This is a reasonable question to ask, but it may be left out purely to reduce the number of questions;
• Stage start/end times: This would be useful in enabling studies of the speed
of road freight to be made. In practice, such a request would place far too great a
burden on the operator, who would either not respond or fake the data.