Commodity Flow Survey (CFS)

What is the purpose of the Commodity Flow Survey (CFS)?
Who conducts the CFS and how often is it conducted?
What types of establishments are included in the CFS?
The NAICS industries covered in the 2007 CFS are listed in the following table
What type of information is collected in the CFS?
How were the data collected in this survey?
What are some common uses of the data?
When will data products be available from the 2007 CFS?
What are some of the differences between the 2007 survey and the 2002 or earlier surveys?
Comparison of Industry Coverage
Sample Size
Survey Methodology
Reported Mode of Transportation
Data Items Requested for Each Reported Shipment

What is the purpose of the Commodity Flow Survey (CFS)?
The CFS provides a comprehensive picture of national freight flows, and is the only available source of data for the highway mode that carries about 71 percent of the value and 69 percent of the tonnage of freight transported.  The primary goal of the 2007 Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) is to estimate shipping volumes (value, tons, and ton-miles) by commodity and mode of transportation at varying levels of geographic detail (i.e., national, state, select MSAs). A secondary objective is to estimate the volume of shipments moving from one geographic area to another (e.g., flows of commodities between states, regions, etc.) by mode and commodity.

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Who conducts the CFS and how often is it conducted?
The CFS is conducted as a partnership between the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau.  The survey is conducted on a five-year cycle as a component of the economic census.  The three previous surveys were conducted in 1993, 1997, and 2002. 

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What types of establishments are included in the CFS?
The CFS is a shipper-based survey, and captures data on shipments originating from select types of business establishments located in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  The 2007 survey sampled over 100,000 establishments with paid employees that were located in the United States and were classified, using the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) in mining, manufacturing, wholesale trade, and select retail trade industries (electronic shopping, mail-order houses, and fuel dealers).  The survey also covers auxiliary establishments (i.e., warehouses and managing offices) of multi-establishment companies, which had nonauxiliary establishments that were in-scope to the CFS or were classified in retail trade.

The CFS does not include establishments classified in forestry, fishing, utilities, construction, transportation, and most retail and services industries.  Farms and government-owned entities (except government-owned liquor stores) were also excluded.  Foreign-based business importing to the United States are also excluded from the survey sample; however, in theory, domestic portions of imported shipments can be captured in the CFS once arriving at a U.S. based establishment (assuming it is an eligible shipping establishment included in the CFS).

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The NAICS industries covered in the 2007 CFS are listed in the following table:

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What type of information is collected in the CFS?
The CFS collects information about the commodities shipped by U.S. establishments.  Information collected for each outbound shipment includes:

• Shipment ID Number
• Shipment Date (Month, Day)
• Shipment Value
• Shipment Weight in pounds
• Commodity Code from Standard Classification of Transported Goods (SCTG) List
• Commodity Description
• Hazmat Flag (United Nations (UN) or North American (NA) number)
• U.S. Destination (City, State, Zip code) - Gateway for Export Shipment
• Modes of Transport
• Foreign Destination (Exports only - City, Country)
• Export Mode

By CFS definition, a shipment is a single movement of goods, commodities, or products from an establishment to a single customer or to another establishment owned or operated by the same company as the originating establishment (e.g., a warehouse, distribution center, or retail or wholesale outlet). Full or partial truckloads are counted as a single shipment only if all commodities on the truck are destined for the same location. If a truck makes multiple deliveries on a route, the goods delivered at each stop are counted as one shipment. Interoffice memos, payroll checks, or business correspondence are not considered shipments. Shipments such as refuse, scrap paper, waste, or recyclable materials are not considered shipments unless the establishment is in the business of selling or providing these materials.

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How were the data collected in this survey?
The sample for the 2007 CFS consisted of over 100,000 establishments. Each establishment selected into the 2007 CFS sample was mailed a questionnaire four times during the calendar year 2007. Each of the 4-weeks was in the same relative position of the calendar quarter.  The establishments were asked to provide specific shipment information about a sample of their individual outbound shipments during a pre-specified one-week period in each calendar quarter.  Respondents who were interested in electronic reporting could request and use a secure electronic reporting option.  In such cases, the requested data were entered in an electronic spreadsheet and were returned via secure electronic transmission.

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What are some common uses of the data?
Analysts and researchers in both the public and private sectors use data from the CFS for a variety of purposes, including:

• analyzing trends in goods movement over time;

• conducting national, regional and sectoral economic analysis;
• developing models and analytical tools for policy analyses, management and investment decisions;
• forecasting future demand for goods movement and associated infrastructure and equipment needs;
• establishing benchmarks for estimating national accounts; and
• analyzing and mapping spatial patterns of commodity and vehicle flows.

CFS data are used as the basis for the Federal Highway Administration’s Freight Analysis Framework, a model that displays by mode the movement of goods over the national transportation network. 

In addition, the CFS Hazardous Materials report is the sole source of hazardous materials flow data available for the highway mode.

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When will data products be available from the 2007 CFS?
The first six preliminary data tables from the 2007 survey were released December 9, 2008 and are available on the BTS website at:  http://www.bts.gov/publications/commodity_flow_survey/preliminary_tables_december_2008/index.html

These tables provide shipment characteristics (value, tons, ton-miles, average miles) by:

• mode of transport
• total modal activity
• distance shipped
• weight of shipments
• industry*
• commodity shipped

*New for 2007 - a data table based on type of industry as defined by the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Final data products will be released in December 2009 and will include a comprehensive set of data tables, such as:

• shipment characteristics at the national, state, and 73 select metropolitan statistical area levels (as well as ‘rest-of-state’ totals)
• geographic flow tables by commodity, industry, and mode
• specially tabulated tables for hazardous materials and exports

NOTE: The majority of 2007 CFS data products will be made available only via electronic media released on the BTS website http://www.bts.gov/programs/commodity_flow_survey/ or the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder website www.factfinder.census.gov. The final data release will include only three printed publications at the national level.  These reports will include national-level data for the:

• United States
• Hazardous Materials
• Exports

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What are some of the differences between the 2007 survey and the 2002 or earlier surveys?
The planning and design of the 2007 CFS involved an extensive 3-year effort resulting in several major improvements to the design of the survey.  Highlighted efforts and improvements included:

• improved sample design – the sample size was restored to over 100,000 establishments (50,000 in 2002), incorporating both state-level and national-level reliability constraints for the first time;
• expanded coverage of shipping industries and geography;
• a precanvass survey (advance survey) to increase sample efficiency;
• formal pretesting leading to improved forms and data collection procedures;
• improved data processing, including revisions of editing and imputation procedures and quality assurance;
• enhanced processing to determine the mileage traveled by shipments, most notably through the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology that focuses on improvements in the routing logic and systematic output for consistent error detection and correction; and
• improved data products and dissemination methods, including the application of new non-disclosure methodology.

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The following tables include a summary comparison of the other key characteristics among the 1993, 1997, 2002, and 2007 Commodity Flow Surveys.

Comparison of Industry Coverage

¹ Under NAICS, publishers were reclassified from Manufacturing (SIC 2711, 2721, 2731, 2741, and part of 2771) to Information (NAICS 5111 and 51223) and were excluded in the 2002 CFS. However, for the 2007 CFS, publishers were restored as an in-scope industry.

² Because of changes in the classification of establishments between SIC and NAICS, logging establishments (NAICS 1133), which were covered as part of Manufacturing in the 1993 and 1997 surveys, were not included in 2002 and 2007. Detailed information about NAICS classification can be found on the Census Bureau's NAICS Web site.

³ While included in all surveys, the procedures for identifying in-scope auxiliary establishments has changed over the years. For the 1997 CFS, a managing office was considered in-scope only if it had sales or end-of-year inventories in the 1992 Census. Research conducted prior to the 2002 CFS showed that not all managing offices with shipping activity in the 1997 CFS indicated sales or inventories in the 1997 Economic Census. Consequently the 1997 Economic Census results were not used to determine scope for managing offices in the 2002 CFS. For 2002, an auxiliary was included if it supported an inscope or retail company. For the 2007 CFS, an advance survey of approximately 40,000 auxiliary establishments was conducted in 2006 to identify auxiliary establishments with shipping activity. Those that indicated that shipping was performed (as well as non-respondents) were included in the CFS sample universe.

Sample Size

Survey Methodology

Reported Mode of Transportation

Data Items Requested for Each Reported Shipment

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