Introduction
The Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) is conducted as part of the Census Bureau’s Economic Census, occurring every five years. It is the primary source of national and state-level data on domestic freight shipments in the United States. The survey sampled approximately 100,000 business establishments quarterly in 2012. The CFS measures domestic freight flows from establishments in mining, manufacturing, wholesale, and selected retail industries, as well as shipments from auxiliary establishments1. The 2012 CFS was undertaken through a partnership between the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R) and Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau.
This report summarizes and highlights freight shipments for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It provides tables for each state’s value and weight of shipments, major commodities shipped, mode of transportation used, distance shipped, state of origin, state of destination, and industry.
1 Auxiliary establishments are establishments that are primarily involved in rendering support services to other establishments within the same company, instead of for the public, government, or other business firms.