Canadian Freight Analysis Framework (CFAF)

Detailed information for 2014

The database can be used in a variety of analyses including, for example, assessing highway capacity and forecasting traffic, evaluating investments in infrastructure, examining trade flows, and analyzing policies such as road pricing and multimodal freight programs.

Data release - March 28, 2018

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The Canadian Freight Analysis Framework integrates data from several sources to create a comprehensive picture of freight flows across the country by geography, commodity and mode of transport. The framework database estimates tonnage, value, and tonne-kilometres by origin and destination, by commodity type, and by mode.

Reference period: The calendar year, or the 12-month fiscal period for which the final day occurs on or between April 1st of the reference year and March 31st of the following year.

Subjects

• Transportation by air
• Transportation by rail
• Transportation by road

Data sources and methodology

Target population

Not applicable.

Instrument design

Not applicable.

Sampling

Not applicable.

Data sources

Data are collected from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.

Air data
The Airport Activity Survey and the Civil Aviation Surveys (annual, quarterly and monthly) are the sources of the air mode data. The Airport Activity Survey collects data from air carriers operating in Canada. These carriers are required to file their data via one of three statements, through the Electronic Collection of Air Transportation Statistics (ECATS), according to their type of operation. Data collected from large scheduled carriers include the last stop/next stop, flight number, number of revenue passengers and cargo weight. Small scheduled carriers' information includes the origin and destination of passengers transported by the reporting carrier. Data from air carriers offering charter services include origin and destination data for passenger and cargo operations.

The Annual Civil Aviation Survey collects both financial data (balance sheet, revenue and expenses statement) and operating data (hours flown, passenger-kilometres, goods tonne-kilometres, etc.) from the Canadian air transport industry.

The Quarterly Civil Aviation Survey collects financial and operational data from the Canadian Level I and II air carriers, while the Monthly Civil Aviation Survey collects the main financial and operational data from the Canadian Level I air carriers.

Truck data
The Trucking Commodity Origin and Destination Survey provides data on commodity movements (domestic, transborder, local and long distance shipments) and the outputs (including shipment, weight, distance, tonne-kilometres and revenue) of the Canadian trucking industry.

Rail data
The rail data are derived from the Rail Commodity Origin and Destination Statistics obtained from Transport Canada. The survey collects data on railway commodities carried by Canadian National (CN), Canadian Pacific (CP), carriers that interline with CN and CP, as well as a number of regional and short-haul carriers that do not interline with either CN or CP.

Value
Transaction-level records of goods exported to the United States are used to estimate the value of goods shipped domestically by commodity, mode and year.

Error detection

Not applicable.

Imputation

Not applicable.

Estimation

Not applicable.

Quality evaluation

Not applicable.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Not applicable.

Data accuracy

Not applicable.