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?
List of NAICS industries covered in the 2017 CFS
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?
What are some of the differences between the 2017 survey and earlier surveys?
What are some of the differences between the Public Use File (PUF) and the Title 13 (T13) dataset?

What is the purpose of the Commodity Flow Survey (CFS)?
The CFS assesses the demand for transportation facilities and services, energy use, and safety risk and environmental concerns.  CFS data are used by policy makers and transportation planners in various federal, state, and local agencies.  Additionally, business owners, private researchers, and analysts use the CFS data for analyzing trends in the movement of goods, mapping spatial patterns of commodity and vehicle flows, forecasting demands for the movement of goods, and determining needs for associated infrastructure and equipment.  The CFS provides a comprehensive picture of national freight flows and stands as the only publicly available source of data for the highway mode.

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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. Previous surveys were conducted in 1993, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017.

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What types of establishments are included in the CFS?
The CFS is a shipper survey of establishments from the industries of mining, manufacturing, wholesale trade, auxiliaries (i.e. warehouses and distribution centers), and select retail and service trade industries that ship commodities.  The 2017 survey sampled 103,877 establishments located in the 50 states and D.C.

The CFS currently does not include establishments classified in transportation, construction, and most retail and services trade industries.  Other industry areas not covered, but may have shipping activity, include agriculture and government.  For agriculture, specifically, the CFS does not cover shipments of agricultural products from the farm site to the processing centers or terminal elevators (most likely short-distance local movements), but does cover the shipments of these products from the initial processing centers or terminal elevators onward.

Government operated establishments are excluded from the CFS. These include public utilities, publicly operated bus and subway systems, public libraries, and government-owned hospitals.

The CFS also excludes establishments or firms with no paid employees and foreign establishments.

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What type of information is collected in the CFS?
Information collected for each outbound shipment includes:

• Shipment ID Number
• Shipment Date
• Shipment Value
• Shipment Weight
• Product or Commodity Description
• Climate/Temperature Controlled Status (Y/N)
• United Nations/North American (UN/NA) Hazardous Material Code (if hazmat shipment)
• U.S. Destination (City, State, and ZIP Code) or  U.S. Port of Exit (POE) (if export shipment)
• Mode(s) of Transportation
• Foreign Destination (City and Country) (if export shipment)
• Export Mode (if export shipment)

By CFS definition, an outbound shipment is a movement of commodities from the shipper's location to another single location, in one trip.

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How were the data collected in this survey?
The sample for the 2017 CFS consisted of 103,877 establishments.  Each establishment selected into the 2017 CFS sample was assigned to report for four reporting weeks via questionnaire.  Each reporting week was in a separate calendar quarter and was in the same relative position each quarter.  For example, an establishment might have been requested to report data for the 5th, 18th, 31st, and 44th weeks of the survey year.  In this instance, each reporting week corresponds to the 5th week of each quarter. 

The establishments were asked to provide specific shipment information about a sample of their individual outbound shipments during the reporting week in each calendar quarter.  Respondents had the option to report electronically via Centurion, the Census Bureau’s electronic reporting system, or through paper questionnaire.

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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 (FHWA) 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 material flow data available for the highway mode.

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What are some of the differences between the 2017 survey and earlier surveys?
The planning and design of the 2017 CFS resulted in several major improvements to the design of the survey. Highlighted efforts and improvements included:

• Improved sample design – the 2017 sample size was 103,877 establishments (102,565 in 2012 and 102,369 in 2007), incorporating both state-level and national-level reliability constraints;
• NAICS 51223 (Music Publishers) was included as an in-scope publishing industry in 2017 but not in 2012.
• In 2012 and prior surveys, Prepress Services establishments (2007 NAICS 323122) were excluded from the CFS.  However the 2012 NAICS revision eliminated Prepress Services as a separate industry and grouped it with Trade Binding and Related Work (2007 NAICS 323121) into NAICS 323120 (Support Activities for Printing).  For 2017, all of NAICS 323120 was considered to be in scope.
• Private truck is now referred to as Company-owned truck.
• Enhanced Geomiler software and improved mileage routing logic (to read more see "Methodological Changes to Mileage Calculation for the 2017 CFS" under the methodology section);

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

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What are some of the differences between the Public Use File (PUF) and the Title 13 (T13) dataset?

While the PUF and T13 both aim to provide shipment-level detail, they are different in structure, availability, and usability.  

Structure 

The two data sets are structured differently due to data protection. The PUF requires thorough disclosure avoidance procedures by the Census Bureau to remove any possibility of establishment disclosure. These data protections include data top coding, noise application, and collapsed variable categories.  The T13 data includes establishment-level response information such as the total number of shipments that originated from that establishment in the given reporting week. Below is a table that lists the maximum Origin-Destination-Commodity-Mode (ODCM) detail per dataset. 

Availability 

The PUF is available to all data users now and can be downloaded here. The T13 datasets are not publicly available and require the researchers/data users to have Special Sworn Status (SSS) and gives them direct access to the data that was collected from the respondents. They are required to apply their own methodologies that would prevent disclosure for any estimates or data created and are held to the same laws and standards as those working at the US Census Bureau.  

Usability 

The PUF is for public use and can be used by anyone for any purpose. It is mainly a source of data for people to run simulations with and is a good resource for use in planning out and validating research ideas. The T13 data requires a project proposal to undergo the SSS approval process and is only accessible to those who have this status granted.  Any research, estimates, or products produced from its use must also undergo  disclosure avoidance procedures to prevent disclosure. 

Recommended uses for CFS PUF:

• High-level analyses 
• Regulatory analyses 
• Rapidly validating an idea for further research using T13 CFS 

Recommended uses for T13 CFS:

• Academic research 
• Detailed modelling and analysis work 

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