Guidance

Freight: notes and definitions

Updated 14 December 2023

About this release

These notes and definitions accompany the statistical release Transport Statistics Great Britain, and provide background information for the freight tables.

This document includes information on sources, data quality, definitions, and general information about the tables.

Domestic freight

Information on tables TSGB0401, TSGB0402, TSGB0403

There are several discontinuities in the series presented in TSGB0401 since 1953. Details on these discontinuities are given below. Unless specified, year references below refer to calendar years.

Road

2004: following changes to the grossing methodology, road freight data from 2004 are not fully comparable with the data before 2004. Detailed comparisons between these two time periods should be made with caution.

2014: from 2014, road freight data include heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) only. Before 2014, an adjustment was made to also include light goods vehicles (LGVs). HGVs are vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of over 3.5 tonnes and LGVs are vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 3.5 tonnes or less.

2021: following a methodology change in August 2021, road freight data before and after 2021 quarter 3 should not be compared. Therefore, the annual figures for 2021 were not published. Please see the methodology note for more information.

Rail

Financial year ending (FYE) 1985: the figure for rail is low because the amount of coal lifted was significantly reduced due to the UK miner’s strike in the FYE 1985.

FYE 1997: exact rail comparisons pre and post privatisation are not possible.

FYE 2000: change in source data from the financial year ending (FYE) 2000.

FYE 2004: break in the rail ‘Goods Lifted’ series. The increase was largely due to changes in collection methods.

FYE 2006: break in the rail ‘Goods Lifted’ series. Figures from FYE 2006 onwards include some of the tonnes lifted by GB Railfreight.

FYE 2008: break in the rail ‘Goods Lifted’ series. Coal data was not supplied by GB Railfreight prior to FYE 2008.

Water

1972: figures from 1972 onwards are not comparable with earlier years. From 1972, water includes all UK coastwise and one-port freight movements by sea, and inland waterway traffic. Earlier years include only GB coastwise traffic and internal traffic on British Waterways (BWB) waterways.

Pipeline

1989: the increase in pipeline data compared to the corresponding figure for 1989 is largely due to changes in coverage.

2013: pipeline figures are not available from 2013 onwards.

Further information

Road: figures for TSGB0401, TSGB0402 and TSGB0403 are for heavy goods vehicles only. The estimates for heavy goods vehicles are derived from the Continuing Survey of Road Goods Transport Great Britain (CSRGT GB).

Rail: figures up to 1962 include non-revenue earning traffic carried by British Rail for its own purposes. Figures for rail are for each financial year. Data for goods moved and goods lifted come from different sources and caution should be exercised if making comparisons between the 2 series. The figures in TSGB0401 are not directly comparable with TSGB0402 and TSGB0403.

Air: domestic air cargo (freight and mail) within the United Kingdom, while sometimes important in terms of speed of delivery, is insignificant in volume compared with other modes and is not presented in tables in this chapter. More information on the volume of air freight carried is in the aviation statistics notes and definitions that accompany this release.

Water: more information on domestic waterborne freight and port freight statistics are available in the department’s maritime and shipping collection.

Modal specific tables

As of the 2022 release, TSGB now covers primarily cross-modal information. As a result, there are fewer tables in this chapter. Below are the tables that are no longer published with TSGB, but can still be found in the relevant routine DfT statistical collections, and their accompanying notes and definitions. The Transport Statistics Finder can also be used to locate these tables, either by table name or code.

Notes and definitions	Table information	TSGB tables
Port and domestic waterborne freight	Waterborne freight by traffic type and cargo category and major inland waterway routes (in terms of goods moved and lifted).	TSGB0425 (PORT0701), TSGB0426 (PORT0702), TSGB0427 (PORT0704) , TSGB0428 (PORT0705)
Domestic road freight	Road freight by type and weight of vehicle, mode of working, commodity and length of haul (in terms of goods lifted and moved, average length of haul and vehicle kilometres).	TSGB0404 (RFS0109), TSGB0407 (RFS0114), TSGB0430 (RFS0105), TSGB0432 (RFS0101), TSGB0433 (RFS0130)
International road freight	Road freight by registration country (in terms of goods moved and lifted), and cabotage within the UK.	TSGB0411 (RFS0202), TSGB0413 (RFS0203), TSGB0414 (RFS00204), TSGB0415 (RFS00205), TSGB0416 (RFS0206), TSGB0417 (RFS0207), TSGB0418 (RFS0208), TSGB0419 (RFS0209), TSGB0420 (RFS0210), TSGB0421 (RFS0211), TSGB0429 (RFS0212)
Road freight	Road freight by number of goods vehicles travelling to mainland Europe and number of vehicles by country of registration.	TSGB0434 (RORO0101), TSGB0435 (RORO0201)
Rail	Rail freight by commodity (in terms of freight moved and lifted), and freight train movements and impacts on road haulage.	TSGB0422 (RAI0401), TSGB0423 (RAI0402), TSGB0424 (RAI0403)

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Email rail.stats@dft.gov.uk

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

Road freight statistics

Email roadfreight.stats@dft.gov.uk

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

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