The Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) is conducted every 5 years (specifically in the years ending in 2 and 7) by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau as part of the Economic Census. The CFS provides data for most of the U.S. economy on commodities shipped, their value and weight, mode of transport, and origin and destination within and between all U.S. regions. The survey covers about 75 percent of the tonnage shipped from a domestic origin to a domestic destination. The CFS is the foundation for the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF).

The FAF supplements CFS results with data from a variety of other sources to include imports and shipments from domestic establishments not in scope of the CFS. FAF provides tonnage and value information by commodity type, mode, origin, and destination for years the CFS is conducted, provides annual
estimates for years in between the CFS, and long range (30 year) forecasts in 5 year increments. It also includes an assignment of truck flows to the highway network for the CFS year and 30 year forecast to provide a picture of current and projected freight truck volumes.

While the FAF is more complete, the CFS provides greater commodity detail and additional shipment characteristics, such as hazardous materials class. BTS released final
2012 CFS estimates in December 2014, which are available at https://www.census.gov/econ/cfs/.

FAF forecasts are based on long-term U.S. economic projections, including real gross domestic product growth, nonfarm business productivity, real oil prices, and the Federal budget deficit. Detailed information on CFS data and methodologies are available at www.bts.gov/publications/commodity_flow_survey. Information on FAF data and methodologies are available at www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/ freight_analysis/faf/index.htm.