Transport statistics provide information about transport volume and performance on defined territories (e.g. for the European Union as a whole or for the individual member states) and are therefore necessary for political, economic and ecological decisions.

Complying with the current European legal basis[1] the surveys for the modes of transport rail, aviation and inland waterways are performed according to the territoriality principle and hence the data on total transport volume is collected in each member state. Alone the road freight transport survey is based on the nationality principle, which means that only freight vehicles registered in the respective member state take part in the national surveys. Thus the single member states have no information about the total transport volume and performance on their own territory derived from road freight vehicles registered in other member states. In contrast the member states have information about the transport volume and performance provided by their freight vehicles in the other European countries.

This situation implies a significant limitation of the usability of the results of the national road freight surveys as well as the usefulness of the modal split of the single modes of transport based solely on the national surveys.