26: The Challenges of Freight and Commercial Transport Surveys

Freight transport surveys traditionally have been and continue to be a stepchild of person travel survey methodology research and practice. Scant attention has been paid to methodological issues that are specific to freight and commercial transport, while on the passenger side a considerable volume of research and publications are evidence of a strong focus on that part of transport planning and analysis.

A series of conferences on travel survey methodology have been held dating back to the early eighties (see conference proceedings by TRB (2000) and Richardson, Ampt and Meyburg (1992)), with the latest taking place in South Africa in August of 2001. Numerous publications have addressed methodological issues of travel surveys (e.g., several TRB Records, and Richardson, Ampt and Meyburg (1995)) many of which are generic, yet the focus in application and the references are almost exclusively confined to person travel.