National Statistical Institute

"Short-term statistics and transport statistics" Department

Joana Iltchevska

Chief expert

2, P.Volov Str. Sofia 1038, Bulgaria

jiltchevska@nsi.bg

+359 2 9857 604

Goods carried - measures the total volume of goods carried by the road transport between two places (place of loading and place of unloading).

Transport performance - measured in tonne-kilometres corresponds to the transportation of one tone over one kilometre by the road transport.

Average distance travelled - characterizes the average distance in kilometres on which the goods have been carried for a specific time period.

· Classification of economic Activities (CEA-2008, for international use NACE.BG-2008) - 49.41 "Road freight transport";

· Unique Classification for transported goods - NST 2007;

· Classification of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes in Bulgaria - NUTS;

· Classification of Dangerous goods - ADR.

Data refer to road freight operation for own account or for hire or reward performed on national or international territory.

The quantity and performance of road freight transport are collected in tonnes, tonne-kilometres and vehicle-kilometres. Data refer to:

· National transport;

· International transport;

· Cross-trade;

· Cabotage.

Road freight vehicle

Sample from the Register of motor vehicles.

For the Republic of Bulgaria.

Since 1^st quarter of 2000

Not applicable.

Thousand tonnes, million tkm, kilometres

Quarter

· Council regulation (EC) No 1172/98 of 25 May 1998 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 2691/1999 of 17 December 1999 on rules for implementing Council Regulation (EC) 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 2163/2001 of 7 November 2001 concerning the technical arrangements for data transmission for statistics on the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 6/2003 of 30 December 2002 concerning the dissemination of statistics on the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) 642/2004 of 6 April 2004 on precision requirements for data collected in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 833/2007 of 16 July 2007 ending the transitional period provided for in Council regulation (EC) No 1172/98;

· Commission regulation (EC) No 1304/2007 of 7 November 2007 establishes NST 2007 as the unique goods classification for road freight and other transport statistics;

· Regulation (EC) No 399/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 amended council regulation No 1172/98 as regards the committee procedure;

· Commission regulation (EC) No 520/2010 of 16 June 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 concerning access to confidential data for scientific purposes as regards the available surveys and statistical data sources;

· Commission regulation (EU) 202/2010 of 10 march 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 6/2003 concerning the dissemination of statistics on the carriage of goods by road;

· 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.

Not applicable.

· Law on Statistics;

· Commission regulation (EC) No 520/2010 of 16 June 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 concerning access to confidential data for scientific purposes as regards the available surveys and statistical data sources;

· Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

All road freight micro-data are treated as if they were confidential. Only aggregated data are published.

Data are published according to the deadlines set in the National statistical program and the Release calendar - three months after the reference period.

The calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Data are published on the internet site of NSI and can be accessed from all users of statistical information.

Quarter, annual

Press release on transport

· Statistical Yearbook;

· Statistical Reference Book;

· Bulgaria (brochure).

Data on Road freight transport are available to all users of the NSI website under the heading Domain statistics - Transport and Communications - Other annual data - Transport: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/7167

The access to micro-data for research purposes is granted according to Commission Regulation (EC) No 831/2002 on access to confidential data for scientific purposes (addition of the 4 surveys:

European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), Community Statistics on Information Society (CSIS) - module 2: Households and individuals, Household Budget Survey (HBS), Carriage of Goods by Road (CGR).

Data on road freight transport from all reporting countries are published on the internet site of Eurostat.

· Methodology for road freight transport: http://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/metadata/Transport_Methodology_RFT_en.pdf;

· Reference Manual on Road Freight Transport Statistics;

· Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in member states and candidate countries.

Methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in member states and candidate countries.

· Usage of common definition and methods;

· Checks and validation of data at national level;

· Annual reports to Eurostat on the national characteristics of the data collection;

· Data validation from Eurostat according to checks set in the methodology manual.

The survey is carried out according the international requirements.

Main users are state institutions, different organizations and specialized in the sector enterprises.

Not applicable.

From the survey are excluded vehicles with gross weight under 6 tonnes, military vehicles, vehicles of Ministry of Interior and other public administration, agricultural tractors and other motor vehicles non designed to carry goods, vehicles with weight and dimensions exceeding the normal permitted limits of the country.

Road freight data come from sample survey. The sample error should by up to 5%.

At the end of each reporting year the sample error in % is calculated. An error is calculated for each stratum separately in order to obtain the total error of the sample. This is done in respect of the tonnes and tonne-kilometres.

Underreporting can be considered as a prevalent bias of the road freight statistics. Having in mind that respondents ease their burden by omitting journeys, the underreporting is in principle an imminent systematic error.

The necessary actions are taken in order to reduce this error to minimum and to ensure better quality and completeness of the received data.

Quarterly data are transmitted to Eurostat 5 months after the reference period.

All the data are transmitted according to the set deadline in the Regulations.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Road freight statistics is different from those of other transport modes and the most important characteristic is that the values are estimates based on sample surveys and that each reporting country reports on its haulier? operations all over the world, not just on national territory.

Cost and Burden for the survey are defined according the National Statistical Program for each reference year.

Countries can update incomplete or revised datasets referring to previous quarters at the same time when they submit new quarterly datasets. Data are revised on the basis of detected errors.

See 19.1.

The information is obtained weekly from all freight vehicles with weight over 6 tonnes included in the sample for the reference period.

Quarterly

Sample survey

With special software.

With special software.

Not applicable.