Census Seeks Input on Commodity Flow Survey
Published Date: 5/20/2026
Notice
Summary
The Census Bureau is asking for public feedback on bringing back the Commodity Flow Survey with some updates. This survey helps track how goods move across the U.S., affecting businesses that ship products. Comments are open until July 20, 2026, and the survey supports better planning without adding extra costs to participants.
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Mandatory Shipping Survey for Businesses
If your business is selected, you must respond to the Commodity Flow Survey; selected establishments will be surveyed four times in 2027 and asked to report up to 100 shipments for a reporting week. The notice estimates 140,000 respondents, a time estimate of 1.5 hours per response, and a total annual burden of 840,000 hours; the collection is mandatory under Title 13 U.S.C. and Title 49 U.S.C.
Survey Changes Reduce Reporting Burden
The 2027 Commodity Flow Survey will remove supplemental hazardous-materials-packaging questions and make other changes to reduce burden, which the notice says will lower the number of establishments covered from 160,000 in 2022 to 140,000 in 2027. Other burden-reducing changes include the option to report all shipments for a week, accepting estimates, more units for weight, electronic reporting, quarterly mail-group creation, and consolidated single-login reporting for multi-unit companies.
Public Data for Transportation Planning
The Commodity Flow Survey is described as the only comprehensive, publicly available source of multimodal goods-movement data and will publish shipment summaries (value, tons, average miles) for the nation, regions, states, and CFS areas. Federal, state, and local planners, as well as businesses and researchers, will use these data to assess transportation demand, energy use, safety risks, and environmental concerns.
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