Comparability

Comparability - geographical

Eurostat publishes EU and EFTA country statistics on road freight statistics. This statistics are produced according to common EC legislation and guidelines. The common guidelines and descriptions of each country practice can be found at Eurostats homepage:

• Road freight transport methodology — 2017 edition.
• Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in Member States, EFTA and Candidate Countries - 2021 edition

Comparability over time

The current time series has been produced as-is since 4th quarter 2009.

Before 4th quarter 2009 separate statistics national and international road goods transport were collected and produced. Methodological description can be found in the publication (in Danish only) Godstransport med danske lastbiler, Serien Transport i Statistiske Efterretninger, 2000:20.

National road goods transport

1979 - 3rd quarter 2009 the statistics on national road goods transport was produced essential using the same methodology as from 4th quarter 2009. It is therefore comparable during the whole period.

International road goods transport

1979-1993 the statistics were produced based on information from the External Trade Statistics from custom declarations related to the movement of goods across borders.

From 1993 - 3rd quarter 2009 the statistics were produced on the basis of a survey among a sample of Danish enterprises involved in international road goods transport.

The change in 1993 was assessed to have only minor effect on the comparability on the main results of the statistics before and after the change. The statistics are thus assessed to be comparable during the whole period.

Coherence - cross domain

The statistics are published quarterly and annually. They are direct comparable since the four quarters sum up to the full year.

The Danish Road Directorate calculated vehicle-kilometres for all Danish registered motor vehicles among which road goods vehicles above 6 tonnes total laden weight based on the odometer readings at the periodical road worthiness tests. Vehicle-kilometres calculated in this way will be higher than vehicle-kilometres published in the road goods transport statistics since the latter only includes kilometres in connection to goods transport while road worthiness test includes all kilometres regardless of purpose.

Furthermore differences occur du to methodological reasons since

• Road goods transport statistics is a sample based survey with some uncertainty
• vehicle-kilometres based on odometer readings is based on methodological decision in order to periodise odometer reading to calendar-year

Coherence - internal

Not relevant for these statistics.