Service Annual Survey: Selected Transportation and Warehousing

To provide national estimates of revenue and vehicle fleet inventories for commercial motor freight transportation and public warehousing service industries. The United States Code, Title 13, authorizes this survey and provides for mandatory responses.

COVERAGE

Companies with employment that provide commercial motor freight transportation and public warehousing services (NAICS 484, 492 and 493). The Service Annual Survey also covers the following service industries: NAICS 51, 5231, 52392, 52393, 532, 54, 56,62, 71, 81. Prior to 1999, the Service Annual Survey did not include transportation industries; they were surveyed seperately as the Transportation Annual Survey.

CONTENT

Data collected include operating revenue and operating revenue by source; percentage of motor carrier freight revenue by commodity type, weight of shipments handled, length of haul, and shipments country of origin and destination; and vehicle fleet inventory. Current and previous year data are requested for the first year of a new sample. In subsequent years, only current year data are requested.

FREQUENCY

Data collection begins in January following the survey year and continues for about 14 weeks. Reported data are for activities taking place during the calendar year. A new sample is introduced about every 5 years. Survey has been conducted annually since 1982.

METHODS

A mail-out/mail-back survey of some 2,000 selected firms and Employer Identification Numbers (EINs). The sample is drawn from a list of employers contained on the Standard Statistical Establishment List which contains all EINs and locations of establishments for listed businesses. An EIN may represent one or more establishments and firms with payroll may have one or more EIN.

Firms are stratified by total revenue size and kind of business using data from the latest census of transportation. All firms with total revenue above applicable size cutoffs are included in the survey and report for all their industry EINs. In a second stage, unselected EINs are stratified by kind of business and revenue and a simple random sample is taken from each stratum.

The sample is updated annually to reflect "births" and "deaths" in an annual procedure. Companies and EINs that are not active in a survey year are dropped from the sample. New EINs are identified in a birth selection procedure and included in the survey.

PRODUCTS

Service Annual Survey reports are normally published no later than 12 months after the end of the survey year. Transportation industry estimates are for annual operating revenue. Comparable statistics are shown for the previous year along with year-to-year percentage changes.

USES

The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses the data as an input to estimates of national income and product accounts. The Department of Transportation uses the estimates for policy development, program management, and evaluation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the estimates in developing producer price indices and productivity measures.

Trade and professional organizations use the estimates to analyze industry trends and benchmark their statistical programs; develop forecasts; and evaluate the impact of regulatory requirements. Researchers use the estimates for market research and segmentation. Private businesses use the estimates to measure market share, analyze business potential, and plan investment decisions.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Provides the only annual source of data for employer firms that offer for-hire trucking and public warehousing services.

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