PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION REVIEW INTO THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF FREIGHT INFRASTRUCTURE AND EFFICIENT APPROACHES TO TRANSPORT PRICING

SUBMISSION BY THE AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

May 2006

Introduction

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is Australia's official national statistical agency.  It provides statistics on a wide range of economic, social and environmental matters, and covers government, business and the general population.  The ABS is only one of a number of Federal, state and local government agencies that contribute to the overall pool of transport statistics.  Individual companies and industry associations also contribute to the field of transport statistics.

The ABS submission will provide details of a number of ABS collections and products that would be of relevance to the inquiry.

ABS transport related collections and data

The ABS has conducted a number of transport activity surveys.  Some are conducted on a regular basis while others have been conducted on an adhoc basis subject to availability of resources.  The surveys have consisted of collecting data from:

•	businesses and government agencies within the transport industry, i.e. organisations supplying data on transport activity; and
•	government agencies involved in transport, i.e. motor vehicle registries supplying detail on the size and structure of Australia's motor vehicle fleet.

Motor Vehicle Census

The ABS conducts an annual Motor Vehicle Census of Australia's registered vehicles as at the end of March.  The snapshot collects information on the number and characteristics of vehicles registered on a certain date. These characteristics include the vehicle type, year of manufacture, fuel used, make, model (for the major makes of passenger vehicles manufactured since 1980), weight, State of registration and postcode of the registered owner. 

Although the main purpose of the Census is to provide a population frame for a survey of motor vehicle use, the data published is used by government and industry to assist in modelling and understanding the changing size, structure and age of the registered vehicle fleet.

Motor Vehicle Census, Australia 2005 (cat. no. 9309.0) is available on the ABS web page.

Survey of Motor Vehicle Use

The Survey of Motor Vehicle Use (SMVU) commenced in 1963, and was conducted thereafter about once every three years up until 1998.  Since 1998, the survey has been conducted annually.

All vehicles that were registered with a motor vehicle authority for unrestricted use on public roads at some time during the 12 month reference period (1 November to 31 October) are included in the survey.  Unregistered vehicles are not in scope of the survey.

The main outputs produced are estimates of distance travelled by vehicle type and tonne-kilometres for freight vehicles.  Estimates are produced for each state and territory.  

The main purpose of the SMVU is to satisfy the information needs of government agencies responsible for the allocation of funds for road development, the design and construction of highways, the regulation of road transport operators and energy use analysis. Other uses include information to assist with decisions on road user charges, predicting likely future vehicle use and road transport demand and assessing future road infrastructure investment needs. 

While the SMVU provides some information on Australia's road freight task, the sample size used and current survey methodology limits the availability of more detailed information on freight movements and corridor information.

Survey of Motor Vehicle Use, Australia (cat. no. 9208.0) is available on the ABS web page.

Freight Movements Survey 

The ABS has conducted three freight movement collections, the Interstate Freight Movement Survey (1980-81 to 1991-92), the Freight Movements Survey (1994-95), and Freight Movements Survey 2000.  

The Freight Movements Survey 2000 provided estimates of freight moved by road, rail, sea and air for the period 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001.  The Freight Movements Survey was designed to provide statistics about the size and characteristics of the transport task, including freight flows between geographic areas.  The survey is the source of figure 1 in the Road and Rail Freight Infrastructure Issues paper released by the Commission.

The statistics for the road component of the collection were based on a sample survey of articulated vehicles that were registered with a motor vehicle registry. Rigid trucks and other commercial vehicles were excluded from the scope of the survey.  Data for the other freight movement modes were compiled from information provided by rail, sea and air freight operators. 

There are currently no plans to conduct another Freight Movements Survey

Freight Movements, Australia (cat.no 9220.0) is available on the ABS web page.   A more detailed description of ABS Freight Movement Surveys is provided in appendix 1 of this publication.

Rail Freight Movements Survey

To complement the freight movements data from the Freight Movements Survey 2000, the ABS undertook a Rail Freight Movement Survey for the 2001-02 and 2002-03 reference periods.   The survey collected information about domestic freight movements from private and government owned organisations involved in moving rail freight in Australia. Data was collected on the origin, destination, commodity type, weight and method of transportation.  Consequently, key measures such as distance travelled and tonne-kilometres were derived from the data.

As a result of industry restructuring, the production of rail statistics become problematic due to the limited number of entities within the industry.  This presented real obstacles to making the data publicly available for policy and planning purposes. 

There are currently no plans to investigate re-introducing a Rail Freight Movements Survey.

Rail Freight Movements, Australia, Summary - Electronic Delivery, (cat. no. 9220.0.55.001) is available on the ABS web page.

Transport Industry Survey

The ABS last published results from a Transport Industry Survey in 1987, for the reference year 1983-84.  Products from the survey are on the ABS Historical Publications Index and may be obtained from the ABS library network.  These products include:

•	Transport Establishments: Summary of Operations by Industry Class, Australia