Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Freight Data and Decision-Making Tools Talking Freight Seminar Series September 17, 2003 Felix Ammah-Tagoe, Ph.D. Senior Research Consultant Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Outline Overview of Freight Data and Analysis Updates of Existing Surveys and Data Programs GeoFreight – The Intermodal Freight Display Tool

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Overview of Freight Data and Analysis Domestic International

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Domestic freight is increasing significantly and planning for future changes in demand a priority Freight traffic expected to continue to grow from both domestic activity and international trade Freight related safety concerns are growing Heightened security concerns and new requirements will impact freight flows Overview of Key Freight Issues

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Overview of Key Freight Issues Near real-time freight traffic data for Freight operations Security operations at state and sub-state levels More timely data for market share analysis

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Brief Analytical Trends Overall Growth Factors of growth Modal Shares

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Domestic Ton-Miles, Gross Domestic Product, and Resident Population Real GDP Ton-miles Population Ton-miles per dollar of GDP Ton-miles per capita

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Growth in Domestic Freight Ton-Miles (Index 1975=1.0) Intercity truck Air carrier Pipeline Water Class I rail

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Modal Shares of U.S. Freight Shipments

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Change in Value of U.S. Freight Shipments by Mode Source: CFS data only.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Share of Domestic & International Freight (16 billion tons, $10 trillion ) Source: USDOT BTS, U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends, Over 16 billion tons of freight move on the nation’s freight system Domestic accounts for 90 percent of tonnage and 82 percent of value

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: BTS Domestic Freight Data Sources

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: BTS Freight Data Sources Surveys  Commodity Flow Survey (CFS)  American Freight Survey (AFS) initiative Administrative Data  Trade and Transportation data  Waterborne Commerce Statistics  Expanded access to PIERS data Carrier Reporting  Motor Carrier Financial & Operating Data  Office of Airline Information

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: CFS: Status  1993, 1997, 2002 (CTS before these)  Conducted by BTS through the Census Bureau  Provides data on how much freight moves by ALL modes of freight transportation in the United States, including multimodal BTS Freight Data Sources

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: CFS: Uses and Relevance  Data on private and for-hire trucking for both intercity and local shipments.  The primary source of nationwide data on the flow of goods, the geography of the movements, and the distance of shipments.  CFS Data used to assess and analyze regional flow density, capacity, congestion, and hazardous material movements. BTS Freight Data Sources

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: CFS 2002: Scope and Coverage  50K establishments out of 800K  2002 CFS same industry coverage as previous surveys (manufacturing, mining, wholesale, and selected retail businesses)  Data on commodities shipped, their value, weight, and mode of transportation, as well as the origins and destinations of shipments BTS Freight Data Sources

Universe of Freight Flows by Sector Manufacturing Wholesale Retail Services Construction Agric (farms&fishery) Mining Exports U.S. Government (Federal, State, and Local)U.S. Households U.S. affiliates of foreign firms in the U.S. Landbridge traffic U.S. Mail Imports Major Flow in CFS Minor Flow in CFS Major Flow not in CFS Minor Flow not in CFS

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: CFS 2002: Timeline and Products  Data collection: ____Calendar year 2002  Data processing: ___Ongoing as collection  Analysis: _________Calendar year 2003  Preliminary results: _December 2003  Final products: ____December 2004  Geographic: ______National level data, States and selected Metropolitan Areas BTS Freight Data Sources

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: BTS Freight Data Sources Though the CFS is the most comprehensive national and state level data currently available, it is done every five years as part of the Economic Census Desirable geographic detail not supported by sample design and size Coverage excludes key freight sectors Also excludes transportation costs, travel times, and other freight-related variables

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: BTS Freight Data Sources  Major gaps in knowledge SOURCE: BTS TSAR 2000

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: CFS: Policy Relevance National Level Benchmark and trend data for supply and demand of freight movements Relative roles of each mode, and intermodal movements Evaluating capacity of system to serve freight demand Basis for forecasts of freight growth Identifying infrastructure bottlenecks

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: CFS: Policy Relevance State and Local Planners, engineers, and executives Forecasting of transportation needs Assessment of facility investment requirements However, national-level data difficult to use for state and local planning Geographically-specific domestic freight data by mode

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: CFS: Policy Relevance Greater geographic detail Corridor level demand and use State and local transportation of international trade Trade related data by industry groups not only by commodity groups

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: CFS: Business Relevance More timely Market segments – demand & supply Specific modal and commodity detail Performance rates – revenue/costs per ton-mile Real-time and near-real-time data

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Detail public-use flow data Through traffic – to, from, within state, and county-to-county Flows for destinations by mode and commodity for local areas beyond top MAs Domestic movements of international trade State & Local Freight Data Needs

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Add-on questions to future national freight program to provide more detail at state and local level Continuous measurement Assisting state and local data users with tools, such as FAF and GeoFreight Designing consistent freight data collection template for possible use at local level Options for Meeting State and Local Needs

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Beyond surveys? costs, burden, timeliness Data-driven models Information from service providers Canadian prototype Administrative information from traffic control and management systems? Today’s Options on Changing Sources of Freight Data

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: CFS: Data Accessibility Confidentiality requirements has limited access and use Sample size reductions directly impacted geographic specificity Accessing and retrieving publicly available data needs improvement

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Need for collected data to keep track of and keep up with major changes, including: Overall growth in freight activity Impacts on system capacity, bottlenecks, and congestion Infrastructure use Changes in logistical and routing patterns Overall performance of freight system Back to Relevance

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Freight Data: Looking Forward Beyond the 2002 CFS Survey BTS is looking beyond the 2002 CFS survey and embracing the opportunity to provide improved data to the users Data that fills the data gaps and better measures changing freight trends Corridor level data that can be used to obtain estimates for individual ports and intermodal terminals

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: American Freight Survey  Freight data users are calling for an expanded and more timely freight survey  Expanded industry coverage  Better geographic detail  Detailed micro-data for corridor-level analysis  Public-use data that meets sound disclosure requirements Domestic Freight Data: Beyond the CFS

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade & Transportation Data

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade & Transportation: Trade Data Multimodal Trade and Transportation Data  Overall statistics: U.S. Census Bureau  Maritime: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Maritime Administration  Air: U.S. Census Special Tabulations  Land: Bureau of Transportation Statistics “Transborder Surface Freight Data” Available since 1993; Monthly and Annual Data “Border Crossing and Entry Data”

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade & Transportation: Transborder Surface Freight Data Data Elements:  Method of Transportation  Weight (Imports only)  Value  Commodity Classification (2-digit HS)  State and Province in US, Canada and Mexico  Port of Entry or Exit  Freight Charges  Container Code

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade & Transportation: Data Issues Trade data  Weight data--various issues  Method of Transportation only at port of entry/exit (no multimodal data)  Method of Transportation definitions and time series gaps  Under-representation of air shipments  Concerns about port definitions (Customs ports vs. physical infrastructure)  Concerns about origins and destinations Accuracy (physical flows vs. “administrative” flows) Lack of metropolitan area level o/d data

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade & Transportation: Critical Questions What is the magnitude of U.S. international trade, and what are the modal roles? How has this changed over time and why? What are the geographic patterns of U.S. international trade, and what factors influence these? How does the U.S. transportation sector impact international trade, and how is it, in turn, impacted by trade?

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade & Transportation: Critical Questions Which are the key gateways and corridors servicing U.S. international trade flows, and how does trade impact them? Infrastructure, capacity, institutional and security issues How will already changing trade relationships and the new security environment affect trade levels, partners, the transport sector, and key gateways and corridors?

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Analytical Projects: Major Interpretive Reports U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends Report Importance of U.S. International Freight in U.S. Economy Trends and Shifts in U.S. International Freight: Trends in U.S. International Trade in Transportation-Related Goods Trends in U.S. International Transportation Services Trade

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends 2002 held steady, while exports declined

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends Report Importance of Trade in U.S. Economy Substantial Growth in Value of U.S. International Merchandise Trade over Three Decades

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends Report Trade growth impacts U.S. transportation networks and facilities Movement of international freight contributes to highway congestion, environmental challenges, and safety concerns Managing and maintaining transportation infrastructure (major gateways and corridors) require large sums of public investment

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends Report Shifts in Direction of Trade Over 75 percent of value of U.S. trade with 15 countries Nearly one-third with Canada and Mexico Rising importance of Mexico (2 nd ranked) and China (4 th ranked) Top 25 U.S. International Merchandise Trade Partners by Value: (million current $) Rank 1970Rank 1980Rank 1990Rank 2001Country Total Canada380, Mexico232, Japan184, China 1 121, Germany 2 89, U.K.82, South Korea57, Taiwan51, France50, Italy33,740

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends Report Modal Shares by Value and Weight Over 1.6 billion tons moved in 2001, up 5 percent from 1997 Maritime leads by weight (78 percent) and value (38 percent) Air accounted for 28 percent of the value and trucks had 21 percent and 11 percent of the tonnage

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Multimodal Gateways Substantial domestic transportation activity is needed to move goods to and from U.S. air, land, and sea ports The nation’s top gateways represent all freight modes New York’s JFK was the top gateway overall by value JFK was followed by Port of LA-Long Beach, Detroit border port, and Port of New York- New Jersey

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: GeoFreight The Intermodal Freight Display Tool

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Bureau of Transportation StatisticsFederal Highway Administration Office of Intermodalism, USDOT

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Background  GeoFreight is a geographic information and decision support system  An intermodal freight planning and policymaking tool  The enhanced version of the Intermodal Bottleneck Evaluation Tool (IBET)  Created by USDOT agencies: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Office of Intermodalism, Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST) Office of Freight Management and Operations, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: The GeoFreight System  Helps policymakers and decisionmakers identify current and potential major freight bottlenecks  Uses a routing model to assign data on freight flows to various transportation network  Displays relationships between freight movements and transportation infrastructure, traffic and delays  Identifies the flows of domestic and international freight across the nation

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: GeoFreight Can Be Used To  Display information on freight traffic flows by various modes (highway, rail, and water)  Examine freight activity at key access points (highway-seaport, highway-airport, and highway-rail terminal)  Analyze origins and destinations of freight movements on the highway, rail, and maritime networks

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Freight Movements on Highway: 1998

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Freight Movements on Highway: 2010

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Growth in Rail Freight Movement (2010 over 1998)

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Intensity of Rail Freight Movements In A Select Region

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Intensity of Rail Freight Movements In A Select Region (cont.)

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Multimodal Flows by Highway, Rail and Water: 2010

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Origin/Destination Flow Analysis Freight Movement on A Selected Segment (1)

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Origin/Destination Flow Analysis Freight Movement on A Selected Segment (2)

Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Questions? Comments … Felix Ammah-Tagoe, Ph.D. Senior Research Bureau of Transportation Statistics