Press Truck toll mileage index in May 2020: +6.1% on a month earlier after seasonal adjustment

Daily truck toll mileage index rising again since late April

Press release No. 209 of 9 June 2020

KÖLN/WIESBADEN – The Federal Office for Goods Transport (BAG) and the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) report that the mileage covered by trucks with four or more axles, which are subject to toll charges, on German motorways increased a seasonally adjusted 6.1% in May 2020 compared with April 2020. Compared with a year earlier, the calendar adjusted truck toll mileage in May 2020 was down 7.3% on May 2019. As there is a strong connection between truck mileage and industrial production in Germany, the index provides early indications of the short-term economic trends in May 2020.

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Measured by the 7-day average of seasonally adjusted values, the daily truck toll mileage has shown an upward trend since end of April 2020. Previously, from 16 March 2020 to 6 April 2020, it was down by roughly 16%.

Close connection between truck traffic and short-term economic development

Economic activity generates and requires transport services - there is therefore a close connection between the short-term economic development and truck traffic on German roads. As part of truck toll collection, digital process data are generated, for example, on the mileage of trucks subject to toll in Germany. The Federal Office for Goods Transport has developed the truck toll mileage index which reflects the development of mileage over time. Due to its rapid availability and economic meaningfulness, the Federal Statistical Office presents the index as a seasonally adjusted short-term indicator and has included the index in its publications programme since December 2018. Currently, there is considerable uncertainty about the economic development and, at the same time, high demand for up-to-date short-term economic data. Therefore, the Federal Office for Goods Transport and the Federal Statistical Office update the results not only every month but every working day as long as the corona crisis lasts. The daily data are published, for instance, in calendar and seasonally adjusted form; the adjustment is carried out by the Deutsche Bundesbank. At intervals of five to nine days, the results provide a very up-to-date picture of mileage.

Information on the truck toll mileage index can be found in the article "Digital process data from truck toll collection as new building block of official short-term statistics", which was authored jointly by the Federal Statistical Office and the Federal Office for Goods Transport and published in the 6/2018 issue of the WISTA scientific journal of the Federal Statistical Office, and in an explanatory video and a background briefing.

Release notes

The daily figures on truck toll mileage are available on the "Experimental data (EXDAT)" pages and on the "Corona statistics" special webpage of the Federal Statistical Office. As previously, the monthly results of the truck toll mileage index can be found in the GENESIS-Online database in Table Table (42191-0001), on the short-term indicator pages and in the Business Cycle Monitor of the Federal Statistical Office.

As part of its "toll statistics", the Federal Office for Goods Transport has evaluated toll data since January 2008. Both the size of the toll road network and the permissible total weight of vehicles and vehicle combinations subject to toll charges have changed over time. The truck toll mileage index largely eliminates such structural changes so that short-term economic trends become clearer.

Further results of the toll statistics of the Federal Office for Goods Transport are available from its publications programme, including information on the mileage of trucks subject to toll broken down, for instance, by country of registration or pollutant category. Due to the broader range of data offered and the increased evaluation effort involved, the monthly toll statistics are usually published after the truck toll mileage index. The statistics are not adjusted for seasonal effects or structural changes in toll collection, as is done in the index calculation.

Bundesamt für Güterverkehr:
Michael Cox,
tel: +49 (0) 221 / 5776-21 06
www.bag.bund.de

contactfor further info

Statistisches Bundesamt:
Dr. Claudia Fries,

Phone: +49 611 75 2413

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