REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on the implementation of Regulation (EU) Nº 70/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road
Date: 2017-12-14
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EFTA countries, EU Member State, EU statistics, carriage of goods, data collection, large vehicle, road transport, statistical method, transport statistics

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 14.12.2017  COM(2017) 775 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on the implementation of Regulation (EU) Nº 70/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road  
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1. 

1.1. 

1.2. 

1.3. 

1.4. 

2. 

2.1. 

2.2. 

2.3. 

2.4. 

2.5. 

2.6. 

3. 

3.1. 

3.2. 

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 2 

Aim of the report .......................................................................................................... 2 

Background of the legal framework ............................................................................. 2 

Policy context ............................................................................................................... 3 

Coverage of Member States and other countries ......................................................... 3 

FOLLOW UP ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION ................. 4 

Compliance with legal obligations ............................................................................... 4 

Data collection methods used in the Member States ................................................... 4 

Administrative burden for the Member States ............................................................. 4 

Reducing and simplifying administrative burden  ....................................................... 5 

Data validation and quality of the statistical data received .......................................... 5 

Methodological support to Member States .................................................................. 6 

STATISTICAL RESULTS .......................................................................................... 7 

Trends in road freight transport in the EU ................................................................... 7 

Data dissemination ....................................................................................................... 7 

3.2.1.  Eurobase dissemination tables ..................................................................................... 7 

3.2.2.  Publications .................................................................................................................. 7 

4. 

5. 

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF ROAD FREIGHT STATISTICS ......................... 8 

CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................... 8 

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1. 

 INTRODUCTION 

1.1. 

AIM OF THE REPORT 

Under  Article  7  of  Regulation  (EU)  Nº  70/2012  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council of 18 January 2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road1, 
the  Commission  must  submit  a  report  on  the  implementation  of  the  Regulation  to  the 
European Parliament and the Council by 31 December 2014 and every three years from then 
on. This is the second report that fulfils this requirement. 

This  report  outlines  the  background,  policy  context  and  coverage  of  the  legislation.  It  then 
discusses issues linked to its implementation and presents the statistical results obtained. The 
last sections discuss the follow-up to the proposals for the further development of road freight 
statistics contained in the first report. 

1.2. 

BACKGROUND OF THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK 

Regulation (EU) Nº 70/2012 is a recast of Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 of 25 May 
1998  and  the  following  amendments,  aiming  to  align  the  legal  basis  of  road  transport  data 
collection  with  provisions  under  the  Lisbon  Treaty.  As  such,  the  Regulation  marks  a  step 
forward  in  the  evolution  of  transport  statistics  in  the  EU.  It  provides  a  legal  basis  for  the 
collection of a wide range of data on road freight transport. By requiring that micro-data from 
surveys of road freight operators are sent to the Commission, it also emphasises quality and 
comparability of statistical information. 

Regulation (EU) Nº 70/2012 was designed to provide the Commission, other EU institutions 
and national governments with comparable, reliable, harmonised, regular and comprehensive 
statistical data on the scale and development of the carriage of goods by road. These data are 
needed for framing, monitoring and evaluating EU policy. 

Member States send the information to the Commission in the form of micro-data: this makes 
it  possible  to  provide  users  with  statistical  tables  containing  different  combinations  of 
variables, subject to safeguards on confidentiality. 

Regulation (EU) Nº 70/2012 was conceived so as to limit the burden on transport companies 
as  much  as  possible.  Data  collection  is  based  on  a  sample  survey;  information  is  therefore 
requested only for a sample of transport vehicles, and for a limited amount of time (generally 
a  week).  Member  States  can  exclude  from  the  survey  transport  operations  undertaken  by 
vehicles below certain thresholds.2 

1 Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 January 2012 on statistical 
returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road. Text with EEA relevance. OJ L 032, 3/2/2012 P. 01-18. 
2 Each Member State may exclude from the scope of this Regulation road transport vehicles whose load capacity 
or maximum permissible weight is lower than a certain limit. This limit may not exceed a load capacity of 3.5 
tonnes or maximum permissible weight of 6 tonnes in the case of single motor vehicles. 

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1.3. 

POLICY CONTEXT 

Development of the common transport policy requires in-depth knowledge of the extent and 
evolution of road freight transport. 

The policy relevance is very high: in the White Paper entitled ‘Roadmap to a Single European 
Transport Area — Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system’,3 ten goals 
were  defined  for  a  competitive  and  resource-efficient  transport  system  (benchmarks  for 
achieving the 60 % greenhouse gas emission reduction target). Detailed road freight transport 
statistics are required to monitor progress towards achieving some of these goals (e.g. the goal 
of shifting 30 % of road freight transport activity on distances of more than 300 km to other 
transport modes by 2030). 

In order to carry out the tasks entrusted to it in the context of the common transport policy, 
the  Commission  needs  comparable,  reliable,  synchronised,  regular  and  comprehensive 
statistical  data  on  the  scale  and  development  of  the  carriage  of  goods  by  road  by  EU-
registered vehicles, and on the degree of utilisation of vehicles carrying out this transport. 

The  data  collected  in  the  framework  of  Regulation  (EU)  Nº  70/2012  are  also  extremely 
valuable for professional organisations, transport companies, researchers, and modellers in the 
field  of  road  transport,  as  an  in-depth  knowledge  of  the  market  helps  improve  the 
competitiveness of companies in the sector. 

1.4. 

COVERAGE OF MEMBER STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES 

Regulation (EU) Nº 70/2012 applies directly and in its entirety to all Member States.  

It requires that all Member States provide data. Under Article 1(3) of the Regulation, Malta is 
the  only  exception  to  this  rule  given  its  low  number  of  goods  road  transport  vehicles 
registered in the country and equipped with a certified copy of the Community licence. The 
collection of meaningful and reliable data from a small population of vehicles would impose a 
disproportionate burden on Maltese enterprises. 

Two EFTA countries, Norway and Switzerland, also provide data. 

3 COM(2011) 144 of 28.3.2011. 

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2. 

FOLLOW UP ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION 

2.1. 

COMPLIANCE WITH LEGAL OBLIGATIONS 

There is very high compliance with the data provision obligations defined in Regulation (EU) 
Nº 70/2012. All Member States delivered the requested datasets, with delays only in a small 
number of cases, mainly due to IT changes at national level. This makes it possible to produce 
high quality and reliable statistics on road freight transport in Europe. 

2.2. 

DATA COLLECTION METHODS USED IN THE MEMBER STATES 

The methodological arrangements of  Regulation (EU) Nº 70/2012 have provided a common 
framework to ensure harmonised data collection and comparable data. 

The  Commission  collects  information  on  national  data  collection  methods  (use  of  registers, 
sampling  methodology,  coverage,  etc.)  every  three  years  and  makes  it  available  in  its 
publication on ‘Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in Member States and 
Candidate Countries’. 

2.3. 

ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN FOR THE MEMBER STATES 

Regulation (EU) Nº 70/2012 was designed with the specific objective of keeping the burden 
on  Member  States  to  a  minimum.  In  most  of  the  reporting  countries,  no  specific  extra 
measures  had  to  be  taken,  as  the  existing  processes  were  sufficient  to  meet  data  collection 
requirements. The Commission also collected information on the burden on respondents. 

Generally  speaking,  only  a  few  Member  States  were  able  to  precisely  assess  the  burden 
generated by the Regulation’s implementation. Nevertheless, the following conclusions could 
be drawn: 

  For  regular  data  provision,  the  vast  majority  of  reporting  countries  that  responded 

consider the workload to be acceptable. 

  There  are  significant  disparities  across  countries  as  concerns  the  burden  related  to  data 
collection, especially depending on the national data compilation systems available. More 
particularly, based on the sample of reporting countries that provided information on this, 
it appears that: 

o 

o 

o 

the  average  time  required  for  respondents  to  report  data  for  one  vehicle  with 
journeys  during  the  survey  period  was  estimated  at  around  10  to  45  minutes, 
depending on the data collection system used; 
the  average  time  required  for  respondents  to  report  data  for  one  vehicle  without 
activity during the survey period was estimated at around 2 to 7 minutes; 
the  possibility  to  collect  and  send  data  in  electronic  format  significantly  reduces 
the reporting burden on respondents. 

It  must  be  noted  that  the  burden  generated  by  the  data  collection  survey  conducted  in  the 
context  of Regulation  (EU)  Nº  70/2012  is  compensated  by  the  value  added  by the  resulting 
statistics. More particularly: 

  The Commission manages the confidential national micro-data provided by each Member 
State  and  compiles  detailed  national  data  (D-tables).  These  tables  allow  each  reporting 

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country  to  have  complete  statistical  information  on  all  road  freight  operations  on  their 
territory by trucks registered anywhere in the EU (except in Malta), in Switzerland and in 
Norway.  The  implementation  of  this  Regulation  and  the  service  provided  by  the 
Commission prevents duplication of data collection at national level on foreign trucks. 
  The  participating  countries  have  a  strong  interest  in  the  statistics  produced;  the  survey 
results provide added value and are fundamental to the monitoring of road haulage market 
in Europe. 

  Collecting  and  managing  information  at  micro-data  level  gives  flexibility  in  meeting 
specific  EU  policy  needs  where  statistical  information  is  required,  without  delay  and 
without requiring additional effort at national level. Such information is often required by 
policy services to draft reports or evaluate relevant legislation and policy targets. 

2.4. 

REDUCING AND SIMPLIFYING ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN  

Reducing and simplifying administrative burden is a continuous concern for the Commission. 
Based  on  Member  State  feedback  the  Commission,  in  collaboration  with  national  statistical 
institutes,  is  implementing  specific  actions  to  reduce  the  burden  of  data  collection  and 
reporting on national authorities and survey respondents. These actions include: 

1.  the development of tools to facilitate the reporting of detailed regional data (NUTS 3); 
2.  the  development  of  automated  micro-data  transmission  and  validation  tools  and 
routines,  providing  Member  States  with  feedback  on  data  quality  and  specific  errors 
for each dataset; 

3.  promoting  and  assistance  in  implementing  electronic  questionnaires  and  web-based 

reporting systems at national level; 

4.  the organisation of regular meetings of national experts from Member States (working 
groups  and  task  forces)  and  experts  from  neighbouring  countries  to  exchange  good 
practices and discuss data quality, problems and solutions. 

2.5. 

DATA VALIDATION AND QUALITY OF THE STATISTICAL DATA RECEIVED 

While  the  quality  of  the  implementation  of  the  road  freight  survey  is  the  responsibility  of 
Member  States,  the  Commission  takes  all  measures  to  detect  errors  in  data  received  and 
maintains  a  performing  and  reliable  IT  system  for  data  validation  and  processing.  The 
Commission  gives  Member  States  regular  feedback  on  issues  that  may  require  further 
investigation. 

Reporting countries make all reasonable efforts to address errors, in particular those that are 
recurring.  The  validation procedure includes quarterly  and annual micro-data validation  and 
time series checks for national, international and total transport: 

  Micro-data  validation:  to  ensure  the  production  of  error-free  datasets,  reporting 
countries  receive a  validation  report  for  each  data transmission,  containing  details at 
micro-data level to make it possible to easily correct any errors detected. This follows 
an iterative process until all errors have been corrected. Moreover, the Commission is 
continuously  developing  its  validation  rules  to  meet  evolving  needs  and  ensure  the 
production of high quality statistics. 

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  Time  series  checks:  the Commission  (Eurostat)  considers  it important  to  identify  the 
outliers in a time series before the data are published, as road freight statistics are used 
in  various  Commission  reports  to  draw  conclusions  on  the  evolution  of  the  road 
haulage market. It specifically requires that reporting countries confirm trends where 
significant  variations  are  observed.  When  necessary,  Member  States  submit  revised 
datasets or explanations of the reasons behind significant time series variations. 

All reporting countries revise data if there are errors. 

2.6.  METHODOLOGICAL SUPPORT TO MEMBER STATES 

The  Commission  continuously  provides  methodological  and  technical  support  for  the 
implementation  of  the  road  freight  transport  statistics  Regulation  and  ensures  that  a  high 
quality data and metadata information system is maintained. 

In  order  to  provide  reporting  countries  with  methodological  guidance  on  implementing 
Regulation (EU) Nº 70/2012, the Commission produced two reference manuals: 

  Road freight transport methodology4, which outlines the methodological basis for the 
compilation of road freight statistics in Member States, candidate countries and EFTA 
countries; 

  Methodologies  used  in  surveys  of  road  freight  transport  in  Member  States  and 
Candidate Countries,5  which  presents  the  methodological  aspects  of  the  road  freight 
transport surveys conducted in the reporting countries. 

4 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-16-
105?inheritRedirect=true&redirect=%2Feurostat%2Fweb%2Ftransport%2Fpublications 
5 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-14-
007?inheritRedirect=true&redirect=%2Feurostat%2Fweb%2Ftransport%2Fpublications 

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3. 

STATISTICAL RESULTS6 

3.1. 

TRENDS IN ROAD FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN THE EU 

Within  the  European  Union,  road  freight  transport  accounts  for  the  main  share  of  freight 
transport carried out by inland transport modes (at around 75 %, this figure has been relatively 
stable  over  the  last  decade).  In  2015,  road  freight  transport  activity  in  the  EU,  measured  in 
tonne-kilometres increased by 2.4 % compared to 2014. Nevertheless, it was still 7.6 % below 
the pre-crisis peak of 2007 and only slightly above the 2010 level (0.7 %). 

National  transport  carried  out  by  domestic  companies  represents  around  two-thirds  of  total 
road  haulage  activity,  while  the  2015  cabotage  penetration  rate  was  around  3 %,  i.e.  on 
average  3%  of  all  national  road  haulage  activities  in  the  EU  were  carried  out  by  foreign 
hauliers. 

The deepening of the integration of the EU's Single Market contributes to higher growth rates 
for international road haulage operations than for national ones. Between 2005 and 2015, the 
number  of  tonne-kilometres  from  national  road  haulage  activities  carried  out  by  domestic 
hauliers  decreased  by  6.5 %,  while  those  from  international  transport  operations  (including 
cabotage) increased by 14.9 %. 

3.2. 

DATA DISSEMINATION 

3.2.1.  Eurobase dissemination tables 

loaded 

into  Eurobase, 

Aggregated  data  are 
the  Commission's  (Eurostat)  reference 
dissemination  database,  as  soon  as  they  have  passed  validation  checks.  Users  can  obtain 
detailed statistical tables made available in line with the provisions of Commission Regulation 
(EC)  Nº  6/2003  of  30  December  2002  concerning  the  dissemination  of  statistics  on  the 
carriage of goods by road7, regarding the data transmitted in the frame of Regulation (EU) Nº 
70/2012, for the period from 1999 onwards. 

3.2.2.  Publications 
The Commission (Eurostat) also produces Statistics Explained articles8, covering the 
following topics: 

  General trends in road freight transport 
  Road freight transport by vehicle characteristics 
  Road freight transport by journey characteristics 
  Road freight transport by type of goods 

6 Statistical data and analysis of trends are available at the Commission's (Eurostat) internet page: 
(http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat) and the Commission's (DG MOVE) dedicated reports: 
(https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/mobility-package-overview-of-the-eu-road-transport-market-
in-2015.pdf) 
7 Commission Regulation (EC) No 6/2003 of 30 December 2002 concerning the dissemination of statistics on 
the carriage of goods by road (Text with EEA relevance), OJ L 001, 04/01/2003 P. 0045 - 0049 
8 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Transport 

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These  articles  are  updated  annually,  when  data  collection  is  finalised  for  a  given  reference 
year. 

In compliance with Commission Regulation (EU) N° 557/2013 of 17 June 2013 implementing 
Regulation  (EC)  N°  223/2009  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on  European 
Statistics as regards access to confidential data for scientific purposes9, road freight transport 
micro-data are anonymised and made available to researchers as scientific use files. 

4. 

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF ROAD FREIGHT STATISTICS 

Several task force and working group meetings have taken place with Member States in 2015-
2016 to examine and propose ways of improving data quality and reducing the data collection 
burden, and to discuss the feasibility of collecting information on empty truck journeys on a 
mandatory  basis  and  data  related  to  trucks’  fuel  consumption.  A  number  of  areas  where 
existing expertise can help improve data quality and reduce the data collection burden were 
identified during these meetings, namely: 

 

reporting on vehicles not in use, 

  simplification of the survey questionnaire, 

  use of administrative data, 

  benchmarking of survey results, 

  use of new ways to report survey data. 

In  the latest  version  of the  Road  Freight  Statistics  Manual,  the  Commission  presented  good 
practices  in  the  above-listed  areas  from  selected  Member  States.  These  will  support  the 
further development of road freight statistics, improve data quality, and reduce the reporting 
burden.  Member  States  still  hesitate  to  agree  to  a  mandatory  collection  of  information  on 
empty  journeys  (right  now  it  is  voluntary)  and  to  the  collection  of  data  on  the  fuel 
consumption of trucks due to the related increase in the reporting burden. At the same time, 
an  improvement  in  the  availability  of  statistics  reported  on  a  voluntary  basis  by  Member 
States was observed in recent years. Furthermore efforts for producing more detailed statistics 
on fuel consumption in the transport sector are made in energy statistics ensuring coherence 
with the overall energy balances. 

5. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The  experience  gained  and  results  obtained  with  the  implementation  of  Regulation (EU) Nº 
70/2012 can be considered as largely positive. The resources allocated to maintain statistical 
production  at  both  national  and  Commission  level  have  permitted  the  production  of 
in 
comparable  and  high-quality  results.  The  Commission  supports  Member  States 
implementing  the  Regulation  and  producing  high  quality  statistics.  It  has  developed  and 
maintained  an  information  system  and  strengthened  communication  to  minimise  the  burden 

9  Commission  Regulation  (EU)  No 557/2013  of  17 June  2013  implementing  Regulation  (EC)  No 223/2009  of 
the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on  European  Statistics  as  regards  access  to  confidential  data  for 
scientific  purposes  and  repealing  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No 831/2002  Text  with  EEA  relevance,  OJ  L 
164, 18.6.2013, p. 16–19 

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for reporting countries. It has also provided guidance for further improving data quality and 
reducing the data collection and reporting burden by publishing national good practices. 

The  Regulation  has  proven  to  be  an  efficient  and  effective  tool  for  the  production  of  high-
quality reliable and comparable road freight transport statistics at both EU and national level, 
avoiding duplication of work. In one Member State, the national road freight transport survey 
was replaced by the road freight survey under Regulation (EU) No 70/2012. The Commission 
encouraged other Member States to follow this example. The statistics produced are regularly 
used for monitoring and assessing road freight transport policies at national and EU level. 

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