Rail Commodity Origin and Destination Statistics (RailOD)

Detailed information for 2008

The survey collects data on railway commodities carried by Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) Rail.

Data release - February 16, 2010

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The survey collects data on railway commodities carried by Canadian National (CN), Canadian Pacific (CP) Rail), 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. The data are used by Statistics Canada as input to the Canadian System of National Accounts, by Transport Canada, other federal and provincial departments, by transportation companies, consulting firms, universities and foreign governments. The information is used for the analysis of transportation activity, for marketing and economic studies, as well as industry performance measures.

Statistical activity

This statistical activity is part of a set of surveys measuring various aspects of activities related to the movement of people and goods. These surveys are grouped as follows:

Transportation by air includes records related to the movement of aircraft, passengers and cargo by air for both Canadian and foreign air carriers operating in Canada as well as the financial and operating characteristics of Canadian air carriers. These data are produced by the Aviation Statistics Centre.

Transportation by rail includes records relating to rail transportation in Canada, and between the United States and Canada.

Transportation by road includes records relating to all road transport in Canada. In addition to surveying carriers and owners of registered motor vehicles, certain programs rely on aggregation of provincial and territorial administrative records.

Reference period: Annual

Collection period: April through September of the year after the reference period.

Subjects

• Transportation
• Transportation by rail

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population consists of Canadian railways such as Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), carriers that interline with CN and CP.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore, no sampling is done.

Data sources

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are extracted from administrative files.

Administrative data provided by Transport Canada are used to collect the data. Commodity origin and destination statistics are provided to Transport Canada (TC) and represent an annual census of waybill records from the two major railways - the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. Freight interlined with Class II (short haul) carriers is included while interline duplication between CN and CP is removed. Each record represents a freight movement and shows origin, destination, commodity code, tonnage and other related information.

Both railways classify commodities using the seven-digit Standard Transportation Commodity Codes (STCC) for their own internal purposes. Before their release to Statistics Canada, the STCC commodity codes are converted to an aggregate form of the Standard Classification of Transported Goods (SCTG). These are the same commodity groups used for Carloadings statistics.

Canadian National Railway reports Standard Point Location Code (SPLC) for points of origin and destination in Canada. Canadian Pacific Railway provides Freight Station Accounting Code (FSAC) for points of origin and destination. The point of origin and destination quoted is the point where the rail traffic begins or terminates in the case of intermodal traffic. In the case of interlined shipments, the origin and destination refers, also, to the rail transport origin and destination, which may differ from the point at which CN or CP picked up or delivered the goods.

The shipments with Canadian origin which terminate in the United States as well as shipments originating in United States which terminate in Canada, are included in the data.

In-transit traffic refers to movements where both the origin and the destination reported are in the United States. These are not included in the tabulation results.

Marine Imports or Exports refer to domestic movement of goods originating in Canada destined for other countries (other than the United States) and vice versa, by water transport.

Error detection

At the micro level, several checks are performed on the data to verify internal consistency and identify extreme values. At the macro level, the data are subjected to a detailed quality review process, including a comparative analysis to prior year. Material errors are thereby identified and corrected.

Imputation

This methodology does not apply.

Estimation

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Quality evaluation

The combined survey results are analyzed before dissemination. In general, this includes a detailed review of the data, a review of general economic conditions as well as historic trends and comparisons with other data sources.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which 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. Data for a specific industry or variable may be suppressed (along with that of a second industry or variable) if the number of enterprises in the population is too low.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Annual estimates are provided for the reference year. The data for the previous reference year are revised if necessary. As this is an annual program, seasonal adjustments are not applicable.

Data accuracy

The methodology of this survey has been designed to control errors and to reduce the potential effects of these. Since the survey is a census of the target population, only non-sampling errors are possible. Examples of non-sampling error are coverage error, data response error, non-response error and processing error. A discussion of these types of errors and the steps taken to address them follows.

Coverage errors can result from incomplete listing and inadequate coverage of the provinces and territories. For the survey, since the population is comprised primarily of CN and CP, coverage errors are unlikely to happen.

Data response errors may be due to questionnaire design, the characteristics of a question, inability or unwillingness of the respondent to provide correct information, misinterpretation of the questions or definitional problems. For the survey, these errors are controlled through careful questionnaire design, the use of simple concepts and consistency checks.

Non-response error is related to respondents that may refuse to answer, are unable to respond or are too late in reporting. For the survey, this type of error is mitigated by the close contact Statistics Canada staff maintain with Transport Canada (the department responsible for data collection) and the respondents.

Processing error may occur at various stages of processing such as data entry, editing and tabulation. For the survey, various measures have been taken to minimize these errors. For instance, data entry and edit are performed simultaneously due to the spreadsheet design which allows errors to be quickly seen. As well, historical ratios aid in eliminating outliers created by data entry. Finally, tabulation is automated to eliminate human error.

Data Limitations

To be valid for time-series and cross-sectional analysis, the definitions of data must be consistent within time periods and across time periods. In other words, the differences and similarities in data must reflect only real differences and not differences in the concepts or definitions used in preparing the data.

As a result of the change in the survey universe in 2001, data on origin and destination of commodities published prior to 2001 are not comparable with data from 2001 and after. This is because the survey universe expanded to include a number of regional and short-haul carriers that do not interline with CN and CP.

As of 1999, commodities are now classified using the SCTG (Standard Classification of Transported Goods). Table formats prior to 1999 are also no longer available.

Data can be influenced by mergers, acquisitions and companies which may enter or exit the industry.

Note: There are no rail operations in Nunavut or Yukon; there are only tourism operations, which are not included in this survey.