Appendix A. Comparability With the 2007, 2002, 1997, and 1993 Commodity Flow Surveys

Monday, July 13, 2015

The following tables show a comparison of the commodity classification system, industry coverage, sample size, sample weeks, reported mode of transportation, and data items requested for each shipment among the 1993, 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012 Commodity Flow Surveys (CFS).

Commodity Classification System

1993	1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012
Standard Transportation Commodity Code (STCC), developed by the Association of American Railroads (AAR)	Standard Classification of Transported Goods (SCTG)

Industry Coverage

1993 CFS and 1997 CFS	2002 CFS	2007 CFS	2012 CFS
Establishments classified based on the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system	Establishments classified based on the 1997 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)	Establishments classified based on the 2002 NAICS	Establishments classified based on 2007 NAICS
Publishers were covered—classified in Manufacturing Division	Publishers were not covered—classified in information sector¹	Publishers were covered—classified in information sector¹	Publishers were covered—classified in Information Sector¹
Logging covered—under Manufacturing Division	Logging not covered²	Logging not covered²	Logging not covered
Other Manufacturing (excluding Printing Trade Services [SIC 279])	Other manufacturing (excluding Prepress services [NAICS 323122])	Other manufacturing (excluding Prepress services [NAICS 323122])	Manufacturing (excluding Prepress Services [NAICS 323122])
Mining (except mining services [SICs 108, 124, 138, 148] and oil and gas extraction [SICs 131 and 132])	Mining (except support activities [NAICS 213] and oil and gas extraction [NAICS 211])	Mining (except support activities [NAICS 213] and oil and gas extraction [NAICS 211])	Mining (except support activities [NAICS 213] and oil and gas extraction [NAICS 211])
Wholesale (merchants and manufacturers' sales branches and government-owned liquor stores)	Wholesale (merchants and manufacturers' sales branches and government-owned liquor stores)	Wholesale (merchants and manufacturers' sales branches and government-owned liquor stores)	Wholesale (merchants and manufacturers’ sales branches and own brand importers)
Retail—catalog and mail-order houses	Retail—electronic shopping and mail-order houses	Retail—electronic shopping and mail-order houses, fuel dealers	Retail—electronic shopping and mail-order houses, fuel dealers
Auxiliaries (managing offices,warehouses)	Auxiliaries (managing offices, warehouses)	Auxiliaries (managing offices, warehouses)³	Auxiliaries (managing offices, warehouses and trucking)³

¹ Under NAICS, publishers were reclassified from Manufacturing (SIC 2711, 2721, 2731, 2741, and part of 2771) to Information (NAICS 5111 and 51223) and were
excluded in the 2002 CFS. In 2007, Music Publishers (NAICS 51223) was tabulated and published in Newspaper, Periodical, Book and Directory Publishers (NAICS 5111). However, for the 2012 cycle, NAICS 51223 was not sampled.

² Because of changes in the classification of establishments between SIC and NAICS, logging establishments (NAICS 1133), which were covered as part of Manufacturing in the 1993 and 1997 surveys, were not included in 2002 and 2007. Detailed information about NAICS classification can be found on the Census Bureau’s NAICS Web site.

³ While included in all surveys, the procedures for identifying in-scope auxiliary establishments have changed over the years. For the 1997 CFS, a managing office was considered in-scope only if it had sales or end-of-year inventories in the 1992 Census. Research conducted prior to the 2002 CFS showed that not all managing offices with shipping activity in the 1997 CFS indicated sales or inventories in the 1997 Economic Census. Consequently, the 1997 Economic Census results were not used to determine scope for managing offices in the 2002 CFS. For 2002, an auxiliary was included if it supported an in-scope or retail company. For the 2007 CFS, an advance survey of approximately 40,000 auxiliary establishments was conducted in 2006 to identify those auxiliary establishments with shipping activity. Those that indicated that shipping was performed (as well as nonrespondents) were included in the CFS sample universe. For the 2012 CFS, a targeted advance survey (precanvass) of approximately 100,000 establishments was conducted in 2011 to identify those establishments that actually conduct shipping activities. In these groups, surveyed establishments that reported that they did not conduct any shipping activity were excluded from the eventual CFS sample universe.

CFS Sample Size and Sample Frame

	Number of establishments in each CFS cycle
	1993	1997	2002	2007	2012
Sample size.	197,176	102,739	51,005	102,369	102,565
Sample frame size (approximately).	790,000	770,000	760,000	754,000	716,000

Sample Weeks

1993	1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012
Respondents were asked to select a sample of their individual outbound shipments during a 2-week period in each of the four calendar quarters of the year 1993, and report key characteristics (e.g., commodity, weight, value and destination) for each of the sampled shipments	Respondents were asked to select a sample of their individual outbound shipments during a 1-week period in each of the four calendar quarters of the reference CFS year, and report key characteristics (e.g., commodity, weight, value, and destination) for each of the sample shipments

Reported Mode of Transportation

1993	1997, 2002, and 2007	2012
For-hire truck	For-hire truck	For-hire truck
Private truck	Private truck	Private truck
Rail	Rail	Rail
Air	Air	Air
Inland water	Shallow draft vessel	Inland water
Deep sea water	Deep draft vessel	Deep sea
Pipeline	Pipeline	Pipeline
Parcel, U.S. Postal Service, or courier	Parcel, U.S. Postal Service, or courier	Parcel, U.S. Postal Service, or courier
Other	Other	Other
Unknown	Unknown	Unknown

Data Items Requested for Each Shipment

1993	1997	2002 and 2007	2012
For each shipment:	For each shipment:	For each shipment:	For each shipment:
Shipment ID Shipment date Total value Total weight	Shipment ID Shipment date Total value Total weight	Shipment ID Shipment date Total value Total weight	Shipment ID Shipment date Total value Total weight
Standard Transportation Commodity Code (STCC) of the commodity that contributes the most to the ship- ment's weight	Standard Classification of Trans- ported Goods (SCTG) code of the commodity that contributes the most to the shipment's weight	SCTG code of the commodity that contributes the most to the ship- ment's weight	SCTG code of the commodity that contributes the most to the ship- ment's weight
Commodity description	Commodity description	Commodity description	Commodity description
All known modes of transportation	All known modes of transportation	All known modes of transportation in the order used	All known modes of transportation in the order used
Single origin (assumed to be the mailing address unless the respon- dent provided a different physical location address)	Single origin (assumed to be the mailing address unless the respon- dent provided a different physical location address)	Single origin (assumed to be the mailing address unless the respon- dent provided a different physical location address)	Single origin (assumed to be the mailing address unless the respon- dent provided a different physical location address)
Destination	Destination	Destination	Destination
Containerized (Y/N)	Containerized (Y/N)	NA	NA
NA	NA	Intermodal (Y/N)	NA
NA	NA	NA	Temperature controlled (Y/N)
Hazardous material (Y/N)	Hazardous material–United Nations or North American (UN/NA) code	Hazardous material–UN/NA code	Hazardous material–UN/NA code
Export (Y/N)	Export (Y/N)	Export (Y/N)	Export (Y/N)
If export: U .S . exit gateway, mode(s) of transport to the gateway, foreign city and country of destination, and mode(s) of export	If export: U .S . exit gateway, mode(s) of transport to the gateway, foreign city and country of destination, and mode(s) of export	If export: U .S . exit gateway, mode(s) of transport to the gateway, foreign city and country of destination, and mode(s) of export	If export: U .S . exit gateway, mode(s) of transport to the gateway, foreign city and country of destination, and mode(s) of export

NA Not available

Data Items Requested for Each Establishment

1993, 1997, and 2002	2007	2012
NA	Third party logistics (3PL) usage	NA
NA	NA	Rush delivery usage

NA Not available .

USA Banner

Site Notification