E-C158 Cover1 - Center for Transportation Analysis - Oak Ridge ...

F
WORKSHOP SUMMARIES
Concluding Remarks
MARK E. WALLACE
Service Sector Statistics Division, Census Bureau
ROBERT BERTINI
Research and Innovative Technology Administration
ROLF SCHMITT
Federal Highway Administration
rom the perspective of the Census Bureau, this workshop has been very effective in reaching
CFS users, providing information about why the CFS is important, how it is used in practice,
and understanding how effectively it meets user needs. Most importantly, it has identified many
opportunities for improving the CFS in the future.
The Census Bureau is committed to improving the 2012 CFS and several improvements
are already underway. The BTS and the Census Bureau have worked together over the past year
to design a CFS that will provide the highest quality ever, incorporating technological changes
while remaining within current economic constraints. This cooperation has identified numerous
lessons learned from the 2007 CFS and has developed a plan for moving forward effectively on
the 2012 CFS. Anticipated improvements include the use of new data collection technologies
that were not available in the past such as optical character recognition for data collection and
electronic data collection for respondents. Use of these technologies is important for improving
the quality of data received from shippers by keeping the survey cost down, reducing respondent
burden, raising data quality, and, ultimately, delivering higher quality CFS data faster than ever
before.
The time schedule for the 2012 CFS is an important factor in delivering the final product
and requires the team to maintain close adherence to the design and implementation plan. The
precanvass will take place in early 2011, followed by an evaluation and modification phase. The
first quarter of the CFS data collection will then start in January 2012. As noted during the
workshop, the window for changes and improvements is small and the team will make the most
of the input from attendees during this process.
The workshop has generated many good ideas that will be evaluated by the team. These
include new data tables, new data products, enhancements to methodologies, and new
considerations for presenting geographic data, just to name a few. This workshop has been a
valuable way of pulling together user input.
In the final analysis, the team will put together a 2012 CFS that will be better than the
2007 CFS. The working relationship between the Census Bureau and its cosponsor, BTS, has
never been better. As new modernized data collection techniques, editing techniques, and other
improvements are implemented, the team believes their relationship with respondents will
improve as well, with an end result being that the 2012 CFS will be the best yet.
—Mark E. Wallace
27