The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) released an updated version of its Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) commodity flow dataset. FAF 5.7.1, the newest, provides estimates of freight tonnage, value, and ton-miles  by origin-destination pair of FAF regions, commodity type, and mode for:

• Base year (2017)
• Annual estimates (2018–2023)
• Preliminary annual estimates (2024)
• Forecast year estimates (2030–2050)
• State-level historical trend estimates (1997–2012)

FAF 5.7.1 extends the improvements from FAF 5.7, which were applied to the 2024 estimates, to the estimates for 2018 through 2023. This involves improved estimates of the U.S. point of entry or exit for foreign trade flows that use ground modes to cross the Canada and Mexico borders and for waterborne foreign trade flows.

FAF 5.7.1 applies two additional improvements to all estimates from 2018 through 2024:

1. FAF 5.7.1 uses the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers waterborne commerce statistics for 2023 (previously, the latest available year was 2022).
2. Previous versions of the annual estimates assigned a small amount of foreign gravel flows (SCTG 12) to pipeline mode based on how it was originally coded in administrative records, but FAF 5.7.1 now codes the mode for these flows as “Other/Unknown” or “Truck.” Updated annual estimates will use the new FAF 6 benchmark and will be available in 2026.

BTS produces the FAF5 in partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. 

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¹Ton-miles is the primary physical measure of freight transportation output (https://www.bts.gov/archive/publications/journal_of_transportation_and_statistics/volume_08_number_01/paper_03/index).