H - Information on Data Sources
Airline freight and passenger data
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Bureau of Transportation Statistics
(BTS) collects and compiles data on the volume of revenue passengers, freight,
and mail traffic handled and reported by the nation’s large certificated air
carriers. These carriers hold Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity
(CPN) issued by the USDOT authorizing the performance of air transportation.
Large certificated air carriers operate aircraft with seating capacity of more
than 60 seats or a maximum payload capacity of more than 18,000 pounds or conduct
international operations. Data for commuters, intrastate, nonscheduled air taxi
operators, and foreign flag air carriers are not included in this BTS data.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Office of Airline Information
Print source: USDOT, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Office of Airline
Information. Airport Activity Statistics. Washington, DC: Annual issues.
Internet: http://www.bts.gov
Commodity Flow Survey
The Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) provides data on the movement of freight by
type of commodity shipped and by mode of transport. In 1997, 100,000 domestic
establishments were randomly selected from a universe of approximately 800,000
engaged in mining, manufacturing, wholesale, warehouses of multi-establishment
companies, and some selected activities in retail and service. The survey excluded
establishments classified as farms, forestry, fisheries, governments, construction,
transportation, foreign establishments, services, and most establishments in
retail. For the 1997 CFS, each selected establishment reported a sample of about
25 outbound shipments for a one-week period in each of four calendar quarters
in 1997. This produced a total sample of over 5 million shipments. Due to industry-wide
reporting problems, shipments by oil and gas extraction establishments were
excluded from data tabulations.
For each sampled 1997 CFS shipment, zip code of origin and destination, 5-digit
Standard Classification of Transported Goods (SCTG) code, weight, value, and
modes of transport were provided. Information on whether the shipment was containerized,
a hazardous material, or an export was also obtained. Route-distance for each
mode, for each shipment, is imputed from a Mode-Distance Table developed by
Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Distance was used to compute ton-mileage by mode
of transport. The CFS provides nationwide geographic coverage in 89 National
Transportation Analysis Regions, stratified by state and, for the 1997 CFS,
metropolitan area.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Office of Statistical
Programs
Print source: USDOT, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and U.S. Department
of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, [state]: 1997 Commodity Flow Survey.
EC97TCF-[state], Washington, DC: 1999.
Internet: http://www.bts.gov/ntda/cfs/
Commuting data
Commuting data are derived from the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey (C2SS).
The C2SS used the questionnaire and methods developed for the American Community
Survey to collect demographic, social, economic, and housing data from a national
sample of 700,000 households. Group quarters were not included in the sample.
The C2SS was conducted in 1,203 counties with monthly samples of about 58,000
housing units. Economic, demographic, and housing characteristics from the Census
2000 Supplementary Survey are reported for the United States as a whole, the
50 states, and the District of Columbia.
The Census 2000 Supplementary Survey is not directly comparable with the 1990
Census for several reasons, one being that the former did not include group
quarters. This may understate some categories such as walking.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOC, U.S. Census Bureau, Demographic Surveys Division
Internet: http://www.census.gov
Gas and hazardous liquid pipeline data
U.S. fatality and injury data for natural gas pipelines and hazardous liquid
pipelines are based on reports filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation,
Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) under 49 CFR 191. Accidents must be reported
as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days after discovery. Undetected releases
are a possible source of error; even if subsequently detected and reported,
it may not be possible to accurately reconstruct the accident. Property damage
figures are estimates.
Gas pipeline incidents involve: 1) releases of gas from a pipeline or liquefied
natural gas (LNG) or gas from an LNG facility that results in a) death or personal
injury necessitating in-patient hospitalization, or b) estimated property damage,
including cost of gas lost, of the operator or others, or both, of $50,000 or
more; 2) an event that results in an emergency shutdown of an LNG facility;
or 3) an event that is significant, in the judgment of the operator, even though
it did not meet the criteria of 1) or 2).
For hazardous liquids pipelines, an accident report is required for each failure
in a pipeline system in which there is a release of the hazardous liquid or
carbon dioxide transported resulting in any of the following: 1) explosion or
fire not intentionally set by the operator; 2) loss of 50 or more barrels (8
or more cubic meters) of hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide; 3) escape to the
atmosphere of more than 5 barrels (0.8 cubic meters) a day of highly volatile
liquids; 4) death of any person; 5) bodily harm to any person resulting in one
or more of the following: a) loss of consciousness, b) an individual being carried
from the scene, c) medical treatment, or d) disability which prevents the discharge
of normal duties or the pursuit of normal activities beyond the day of the accident;
or 6) estimated property damage, including cost of clean-up and recovery, value
of lost product, and damage to the property of the operator or others, or both,
exceeding $50,000.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of Pipeline
Safety
Internet: http://ops.dot.gov
Government transportation revenue and expenditure data
The U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC), U.S. Census Bureau conducts an Annual
Survey of Government Finances. Alternatively, every five years, in years ending
in a ‘2’ or ‘7’, a Census of Governments, including a finance portion, is conducted.
The survey coverage includes all state and local governments in the United States.
For both the Census and annual survey, the finance detail data is equivalent,
encompassing the entire range of government finance activities—revenue, expenditure,
debt, and assets.
The data collection for the annual survey uses two methods: mail canvas and
central collection from state sources. Data for local governments includes county,
municipal, township, special district, and school district data. Data for state
governments are compiled from state government audits, budgets, and other financial
reports into the classification categories used for reporting by the Census
Bureau.
Reporting of government finances by the Census Bureau involves presentation
of data in terms of uniform categories. While often similar to, or identical
to, the classification used by the state or local government, there could be
instances in which a significant difference exists between the name of a state
or local financial item and the final category to which it is assigned by the
Census Bureau.
Like financial transactions are combined. The financial categories for revenue
involve grouping of items by source. Revenue items of the same kind are merged.
Financial transactions for expenditures are classified both by function and
by object category. Debt items are classified by term (short- and long-term),
as well as by type of debt and, to a limited extent, by purpose. Assets also
are put into uniform categories, grouped by type of holding, with holdings for
insurance trust systems grouped separately from general government.
The share of government sector financial totals contributed by a state government
or by local governments differs materially from one state to another. Users
can review the Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual for
additional information regarding the financial categories. The financial amounts
in the tables and files are statistical in nature and do not represent accounting
statements or conditions.
The local government statistics are developed from a sample survey. Therefore,
the local totals, as well as state and local aggregates, are considered estimated
amounts subject to sampling error. State government finance data are not subject
to sampling. Consequently, state-local aggregates for individual states are
more reliable (on a relative standard error basis) than the local government
estimates they include.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOC, U.S. Census Bureau, Finance Branch
Print Sources: USDOC, U.S. Census Bureau, Federal Aid to States: 2000
Internet: http://www.census.gov
Hazardous materials incidents data
Incidents resulting in certain unintentional releases of hazardous materials
must be reported under 49 CFR 171.16. Each carrier must submit a report to the
USDOT, Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) within 30 days of
the incident, including information on the mode of transportation involved,
results of the incident, and a narrative description of the accident. These
reports are generally made available on RSPA’s incident database within 90 days
of receipt.
Fatalities and injuries are counted only if directly caused by a hazardous
material. For example, a truck operator killed by impact forces during a motor
vehicle crash would not be counted as a hazardous-material fatality. RSPA contacts
the submitting carrier by telephone to verify all reported fatalities.
Although RSPA acknowledges that there is some level of underreporting, it believes
that the underreporting is mostly limited to small, nonserious incidents. The
reporting requirements were extended to intrastate highway carriers on October
1, 1998, and the response rate from this new group is expected to increase over
time. Property damage figures are estimates determined by the carrier prior
to the 30-day reporting deadline, and are generally not subsequently updated.
Property damage figures, therefore, may underestimate actual damages.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of Hazardous
Materials Planning and Analysis
Print source: USDOT, Research and Special Programs Administration, Office of
Hazardous Materials Safety, Hazmat Summary by State for Calendar Year 2000.
Washington, DC: 2001
Internet: http://hazmat.dot.gov
Highway mileage, condition, and use, driver licenses, and highway vehicle
registrations data
Data on roadway mileage, condition, and use are extracted from the Highway
Performance Monitoring System (HPMS), which uses a stratified simple random
sample of highway links (small sections of roadway) selected from state inventory
files. The HPMS sample was designed as a fixed sample to minimize data collection
costs, but adjustments to maintain representativeness are carried out periodically.
The HPMS also consists of universe reporting (a complete census) for the Interstate
and the National Highway System, and tabular summary reporting of limited information.
Data are collected independently by the 50 states, Metropolitan Planning Organizations
(MPOs), and lower jurisdictions. Many of the geometric data items rarely change,
such as number of lanes; others change frequently, such as traffic. The U.S.
Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides
guidelines for data collection in the HPMS Field Manual, which the states
follow to varying extents depending on matters such as staff, resources, state
perspective, uses of the data, and state/MPO/local needs for the data. State
Departments of Transportation (DOTs) report HPMS data annually to the FHWA.
HPMS data are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. Nonsampling error
is the major concern with these data. For some of the most variable and important
data items, such as traffic, guidelines for measurement and data collection
have been produced. States have the option of using the guidelines or using
their own procedures. Many data items are difficult and costly to collect and
are reported as estimates not based on direct measurement. The data are collected
and reported by many entities and individuals within the responsible organizations.
Most do a reasonably good job, but staff turnover, cost, equipment issues, etc.,
can create difficulties.
States provide vehicle registration data to the FHWA. Vehicle registration
data are shown on a calendar-year basis. Efforts are made to exclude transfers,
re-registrations, and any other factors that could result in duplication in
the vehicle counts. Registration practices for commercial vehicles differ greatly
among the states. Some states register a tractor-semitrailer combination as
a single unit; others register the tractor and the semitrailer separately. Some
states register buses with trucks or automobiles, while many states do not report
house and light utility trailers separately from commercial trailers or semitrailers.
Some states do not require registration of car or light utility trailers. In
some instances, FHWA has supplemented the data supplied by the states with information
obtained from other sources.
States also provide driver licensing data to the FHWA. Although efforts are
made to minimize license duplication, drivers who move from one state to another
are sometimes counted in both states until the license from the previous state
of residence expires. Problems with the data also arise from the fact that:
1) some individuals obtain their drivers licenses in states other than those
of legal residence; 2) some individuals fraudulently obtain multiple licenses;
3) not all individuals who drive are licensed; and 4) the purging of expired
licenses or licenses from deceased individuals is not performed on a continual
basis.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Federal Highway Administration, Office of Highway Policy Information
Print source: USDOT, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics.
Washington, DC: Annual issues.
Internet: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/index.html
Highway safety data
Fatalities: Highway fatality data are extracted from the Fatality Analysis
Reporting System (FARS), which is compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation
(USDOT), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Data are gathered
from a census of police accident reports (PARs), state vehicle registration
files, state drivers licensing files, state highway department data, vital statistics,
death certificates, coroner/medical examiner reports, hospital medical reports,
and emergency medical service reports. A separate form is completed for each
fatal crash. Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is estimated when not known.
Statistical procedures used for unknown data in FARS can be found in the NHTSA
report, A Method for Estimating Posterior BAC Distributions for Persons Involved
in Fatal Traffic Accidents, DOT HS 807 094 (Washington, DC: July 1986).
Data are collected from relevant state agencies and electronically submitted
for inclusion in the FARs database on a continuous basis. Cross-verification
of PARs with death certificates helps prevent undercounting. Moreover, when
data are entered, they are checked automatically for acceptable range values
and consistency, enabling quick corrections when necessary. Several programs
continually monitor the data for completeness and accuracy. Periodically, sample
cases are analyzed for accuracy and consistency.
FARS data do not include motor vehicle fatalities on nonpublic roads. These
are thought to account for about 2 percent or fewer of the total motor vehicle
fatalities per year.
Injuries and crashes: NHTSA’s General Estimates System (GES) data are
a nationally representative sample of police-reported crashes that contributed
to an injury or fatality or resulted in property damage and involved at least
one motor vehicle traveling on a trafficway. GES data collectors randomly sample
PARs and forward copies to a central contractor for coding into a standard GES
system format. Documents such as police diagrams or supporting text provided
by the officers might be further reviewed to complete a data entry. A NHTSA
study of injuries from motor vehicle crashes estimated the total count of nonfatal
injuries at over 5 million compared with the GES’s estimate of 3.2 million in
1998.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National
Center for Statistics and Analysis
Print source: USDOT, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Traffic
Safety Facts. Washington, DC: Annual issues.
Internet: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov
International visitors data
Data on international visitors to the United States are based on international
arrivals by air to the United States (excluding those from Canada and Mexico).
Information is derived from the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s (INS)
Visitor Arrivals Program (I-94) and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Tourism
Industries Office’s Survey of International Air Travelers. The survey obtains
data on overseas travel patterns, characteristics, and spending patterns of
international travelers to and from the United States. Between 69,000 and 95,000
travelers are surveyed each year. The survey results are weighted so they represent
the international travel populations of U.S. residents and non-residents based
upon Immigration and Naturalization Service data.
Additional information:
Contact: U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC), International Trade Administration,
Tourism Industries Office
Print source: USDOC, International Trade Administration, Tourism Industries
Office, Overseas Visitors to Select U.S. States and Territories. Washington,
DC: Annual issues; and USDOC, International Trade Administration, Tourism
Industries Office, Overseas Visitors to Select U.S. Cities/Hawaiian Islands.
Washington, DC: Annual issues.
Internet: http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/
Passenger border crossing data
U.S. Custom Service personnel collect passenger border-crossing entry data
for all U.S. land, air, and maritime ports. These numbers reflect all entries,
and it is not possible to divide these data into separate entries for same-day
and overnight travel or by country of residence for the traveler. Additionally,
for border-crossing figures, the total number of people is not the number of
unique individuals, but rather indicates the number of border crossings. Multiple
crossings by the same individual count as multiple border crossings.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Office of Transportation
Analysis
Internet: http://www.bts.gov
Railroad industry and shipments data
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) database aggregates data from several
sources concerning the freight railroad industry and movement of freight, both
nationally and statewide. The state-specific data include commerce, employment,
and financial contributions.
The primary source of data for Class I railroads is Schedule 700 of the R-1
Annual Report to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) by individual carriers
(100 percent reporting) and the 2000 Carload Waybill Sample. The primary source
of data for non-Class I railroads is AAR’s Profiles of U.S. Railroads from statistics
supplied annually by nearly all operating U.S. freight railroads. Some of the
data are estimated based on more aggregated, national figures.
The STB defines Class I railroads as having operating revenues at or above
a threshold indexed to a base of $250 million (1991) and adjusted annually in
concert with changes in the Railroad Freight Rate Index published by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics. Declassification from Class I status occurs when a railroad
falls below the applicable threshold for three consecutive years. Although few
in number, Class I railroads account for over 90 percent of the industry’s revenue.
The AAR determines the number of non-Class I railroads through an annual survey
sent to each U.S. freight railroad.
Historical reliability may vary due to changes in the railroad industry, including
bankruptcies, mergers, and declassification by the STB. Small data errors may
also have occurred because of independent rounding in this series by the AAR.
Additional information:
Contact: Association of American Railroads, Policy and Economics Department
Internet: http://www.aar.org
Railroad safety data
Railroads are required to file a report for each accident or incident to the
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). These include: 1) train accidents, reported
on Form F 6180.54, comprised of collisions, derailments, and other events involving
the operation of on-track equipment and causing reportable damage above an established
threshold ($6,600 in 1998); 2) highway-rail grade crossing incidents, reported
on Form F 6180.57, involving impact between railroad on-track equipment and
highway users at crossings; and 3) other incidents, reported on Form F 6180.55a,
involving all other reportable incidents or exposures that cause a fatality
or injury to any person or an occupational illness to a railroad employee.
Railroads are required by FRA regulations to use the current FRA Guide for
Preparing Accident/Incident Reports when preparing reports.
The Systems Support Division of FRA maintains the Railroad Accident/Incident
Reporting System (RAIRS), consisting of four databases: rail equipment, injury/illness,
grade-crossing accidents, and railroad summary (freight and passenger). These
databases include information on all railroad accidents, grade-crossing accidents,
railroad employee casualties, and any other injuries on railroad property, and
provide the basis for accident analyses and assessment as well as annual reports.
The databases are updated monthly from information submitted by the railroads.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Safety
Print publication: USDOT, Federal Railroad Administration, Railroad Safety
Statistics. Washington, DC: Annual issues.
Internet: http://www.fra.dot.gov
Recreational boating safety and vehicles data
The U.S. Coast Guard, of the U.S. Department of Transportation, collects data
on recreational boating accidents from two sources: 1) Boating Accident Report
(BAR) data forwarded to the Coast Guard by jurisdictions with an approved boat
numbering and casualty reporting system, and 2) reports of Coast Guard investigations
of fatal boating accidents that occurred on waters under federal jurisdiction.
Recreational Boating Accident Investigation data are used if submitted to the
Coast Guard and are relied on as much as possible to provide accident statistics.
In the absence of investigations, information is collected from reports filed
by boat operators.
Boat operators are required to file a BAR if an accident results in 1) loss
of life, 2) personal injury that requires medical treatment beyond first aid,
3) damage to the vessel and other property exceeding $500, or 4) complete loss
of the vessel.
Boat operators are required to report their accidents to authorities in the
state where the accident occurred. States with approved boat numbering systems
furnish the Coast Guard with BAR data. The minimum reporting requirements are
set by federal regulation, but states are allowed to have stricter requirements.
The Coast Guard reports recreational boating safety data in the report Boating
Statistics, which only covers accidents meeting the federal minimum reporting
requirements.
The statistics in Boating Statistics cover boating accidents reported
on waters of joint federal and state jurisdiction, and exclusive state jurisdiction.
The Coast Guard believes over 90 percent of fatal accidents are included in
Boating Statistics. A smaller percentage of nonfatal accidents are reported
because of reporting thresholds, ignorance of the law, and difficulties enforcing
the law. Federal law does not require the reporting of accidents on private
waters where states have no jurisdiction. Reports of accidents on such waters
are included when received by the Coast Guard if they satisfy the other requirements
of inclusion. Accidents excluded are those in which the boat was used as a platform
for other activities (e.g., swimming), and those in which a person dies of natural
causes aboard a boat. However, the data do include accidents involving people
in the water who are struck by their boat or another boat.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, U.S. Coast Guard, Office of Boating Safety
Print source: USDOT, U.S. Coast Guard, Office of Boating Safety, Boating
Statistics, Washington, DC: Annual issues.
Internet: http://www.uscgboating.org
Transborder surface freight data
The Transborder Surface Freight Dataset is extracted from the Census Foreign
Trade Statistics Program and made available by the Bureau of Transportation
Statistics. Import and export data are extracted from administrative records
required by the Departments of Commerce and Treasury. This dataset incorporates
all shipments entering or exiting the United States by surface modes of transport
(that is, other than air or maritime vessel) to and from Canada or Mexico. Prior
to January 1997, this dataset also included transhipments in its detailed tables,
that is, shipments entering or exiting the United States by way of U.S. Customs
ports on the northern or southern borders, even when the actual origin or final
destination of the goods was other than Canada or Mexico. Shipments that neither
originate nor terminate in the United States (i.e., intransit shipments) are
beyond the scope of this dataset because they are not considered U.S. international
trade shipments.
Users should be aware that the trade data fields (such as value and commodity
classification) are typically more rigorously reviewed than transportation data
fields (i.e., mode of transportation and port of entry/exit). Users should also
be aware that the use of foreign trade data to describe physical transportation
flows might not be direct. For example, this dataset provides surface transportation
information for individual Customs districts and ports on the northern and southern
borders. However, because of filing procedures for trade documents, these ports
may or may not reflect where goods physically crossed the border. This is because
the filer of information may choose to file trade documents at one port, while
shipments actually enter or exit at another port.
Import data are generally more accurate than export data. This is primarily
due to the fact that Customs uses import documents for enforcement purposes,
while it performs no similar function for exports.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Office of Transportation
Analysis
Internet: http://www.bts.gov
Transit operating, financial, and safety data
Transit data are from the National Transit Database (NTD) produced by the USDOT,
Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Data are collected from transit agencies
that receive Urbanized Area Formula Program funds. Transit operators that do
not report to FTA are those that do not receive federal funding, typically private,
small, and rural operators. FTA reviews and validates information submitted
by individual transit agencies. Reliability may vary because some transit agencies
cannot obtain accurate information or may interpret certain data definitions
differently than intended.
In 2000, 592 agencies reported to the NTD. Of that total, 67 transit agencies
received exemptions from detailed reporting because they operated 9 or fewer
vehicles, and 7 were excluded because their data were incomplete. Thus, 518
individual reporters were included in the NTD accounting for 90 to 95 percent
of transit passenger-miles.
Data are collected on a range of variables including capital and operating
funding, transit service supplied and consumed, and transit safety and security.
Transit operators must report fatalities, injuries, accidents, incidents, and
property damage in excess of $1,000.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Federal Transit Administration
Print source: USDOT, Federal Transit Administration, Data Tables. Washington,
DC: Annual issues; and USDOT, Federal Transit Administration, National Transit
Database Reporting Manual. Washington, DC: Annual issues.
Internet: http://www.fta.dot.gov
Transportation establishment, employees, and payroll data
Data on employees, establishments, and payroll are taken from County Business
Patterns, a database of employment in the United States using the North American
Industry Classification System (NAICS). Data are collected annually. Data are
extracted from the Business Register, the Census Bureau’s file of all known
single and multi-establishment companies. The Annual Company Organization Survey
and quinquennial Economic Censuses provide individual establishment data for
multi-location firms. Data for single-location firms are obtained from various
programs conducted by the Census Bureau, such as the Economic Censuses, the
Annual Survey of Manufactures, and Current Business Surveys. They are also obtained
from administrative records of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social
Security Administration (SSA), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Additional information:
Contact: USDOC, U.S. Census Bureau, Economic Planning and Coordination Division
Print source: USDOC, U.S. Census Bureau, [State]: County Business
Patterns 1999. CBP/99-6. Washington, DC: 2001.
Internet: http://www.census.gov/epcd/cbp/view/cbpview.html
Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey
The Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) collects data on the physical and
operational characteristics of private and commercial trucks in the United States.
The 1997 VIUS sampled about 131,000 trucks from an estimated universe of over
75 million trucks. The sample excludes vehicles owned by federal, state, and
local government including ambulances, buses, motor homes, farm tractors, unpowered
trailer units, and trucks reported to have been sold, junked, or wrecked prior
to July 1, 1996. Light trucks registered as cars, as is the practice in many
states, were included. Unregistered trucks used off-road are not included. Census
delivered a mail-out/mail-back survey to the owner identified in the vehicle
registration records. Data collection is staggered as state records become available.
Owners report data only for the vehicles selected. The response rate for the
1997 VIUS was about 85 percent.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOC, U.S. Census Bureau, Service Sector Statistics Division
Print source: USDOC, U.S. Census Bureau, [state]: 1997 Vehicle Inventory
and Use Survey. EC97TV-[state]. Washington, DC: 1999.
Internet: http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/tiusview.html
Waterborne imports and vessel data
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) classifies
merchant-based vessels by size and type and reports this information in its
annual publication, Merchant Fleets of the World. MARAD compiles these
figures from a data service provided by Lloyd’s Maritime Information Service.
The parent company, Lloyd’s Register (LR), collects data from several sources,
including its offices around the world, data transfers and agreements with other
classification societies, questionnaires to ship owners and shipbuilders, feedback
from government agencies, and input from port agents.
MARAD’s Office of Statistical and Economic Analysis maintains the waterborne
databank used to compile the annual import and export statistics from monthly
and quarterly data provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. MARAD publishes
the data in reports of vessel movements, trade and cargo by type of service,
U.S. and foreign port, country of origin/destination, commodity, value, weight,
and containerized cargo.
MARAD distributes the reports and performs special tabulations and customized
maritime data reports created for other government agencies and the private
sector on a reimbursable basis. MARAD also provides these services for historic
data and maintains the Schedule K Classification of Foreign Ports by Geographic
Trade Area and Country.
Additional information:
Contact: USDOT, Maritime Administration, Office of Statistical and Economic
Analysis
Print source: USDOT, Maritime Administration, Merchant Fleets of the World.
Internet: http://www.marad.dot.gov
Waterborne shipments data
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) Navigation Data Center (NDC) collects
data on waterborne commodity and vessel movements, domestic commercial vessel
characteristics, port and waterway facilities, and navigation dredging projects.
The NDC’s databases contain information on physical characteristics, infrastructure,
and commodities for principal facilities on the U.S. coast, Great Lakes, and
inland ports. The data consists of listings of port area’s waterfront facilities,
including information on berthing, cranes, transit sheds, grain elevators, marine
repair plants, fleeting areas, and docking and storage facilities.
All vessel operators of record report their domestic waterborne traffic movements
to the Corps via ENG Forms 3925 and 3925b. Cargo movements are reported according
to points of loading and unloading. Excluded cargo movements are: 1) cargo carried
on general ferries, 2) coal and petroleum products loaded from shore facilities
directly into vessels for fuel use, 3) military cargo moved in U.S. Department
of Defense vessels, and 4) cargo weighing less than 100 tons moved on government
equipment. The Corps calculates ton-miles by multiplying the cargo’s tonnage
by the distance between points of loading and unloading.
An annual survey of companies that operate inland waterway vessels is the principal
source of data for inland non self-propelled vessels, self-propelled vessels,
and flag passenger and cargo vessels. More than 3,000 surveys are sent to these
companies, and response rates are typically above 90 percent.
Additional information:
Contact: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center
Print source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Waterborne Commerce of the United
States. New Orleans, LA: Annual issues.
Internet: http://www.wrsc.usace.army.mil
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