Commodity Flow Survey

The Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) is the primary source of national and state-level data on domestic freight shipments by American establishments in mining, manufacturing, wholesale, auxiliaries, and selected retail industries. Data are provided on the types, origins and destinations, values, weights, modes of transport, distance shipped, and ton-miles of commodities shipped. The CFS is a shipper-based survey and is conducted every five years as part of the Economic Census. It provides a modal picture of national freight flows, and represents the only publicly available source of commodity flow data for the highway mode. The CFS was conducted in 1993, 1997, 2002, 2007 and most recently in 2012.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
accrualPeriodicity irregular
agencyDataSeriesURL http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/commodity_flow_survey/index.html
agencyProgramURL http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/commodity_flow_survey/index.html
bureauCode {021:53}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_@id https://data.transportation.gov/data.json
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
categoryDesignation Research
collectionInstrument http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/commodity_flow_survey/survey_materials/index.html
collection_metadata true
dataQuality true
describedBy http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/commodity_flow_survey/html/def_terms.html
identifier DOT-148
issued 1993-12-31
landingPage https://data.transportation.gov/d/xy22-e2cw
language {en-US}
license http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
modified 2018-12-19
phone 202-366-8908
programCode {021:000}
publisher Research and Innovative Technology Administration
references {http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/commodity_flow_survey/index.html}
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 48711e1a6ab031704ca1c74964d8f57d4ef51d73
source_schema_version 1.1
temporal 1993-12-31/2013-12-31
theme {Transportation}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • commodity
  • exports
  • freight
  • geo
  • geoss
  • hazardous-materials
  • national
  • north-america
  • transportation
  • united-states
isopen False
license_id us-pd
license_title us-pd
maintainer Ronald Duych
maintainer_email Ronald.Duych@dot.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-19T18:09:00.344978
metadata_modified 2025-11-19T18:09:00.344984
notes The Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) is the primary source of national and state-level data on domestic freight shipments by American establishments in mining, manufacturing, wholesale, auxiliaries, and selected retail industries. Data are provided on the types, origins and destinations, values, weights, modes of transport, distance shipped, and ton-miles of commodities shipped. The CFS is a shipper-based survey and is conducted every five years as part of the Economic Census. It provides a modal picture of national freight flows, and represents the only publicly available source of commodity flow data for the highway mode. The CFS was conducted in 1993, 1997, 2002, 2007 and most recently in 2012.
num_resources 1
num_tags 13
title Commodity Flow Survey