Estimating a Detailed Trans-European Origin-Destination Matrix of Road Freight Transport

Abstract

Detailed data regarding the types and quantities of goods transported, both regionally and internationally, plays a pivotal role in developing sustainable freight transport strategies. However, such data is currently lacking. This paper presents a method based on Iterative Proportional Fitting for creating comprehensive Origin-Destination (OD) matrices representing European road freight transport flows. The approach integrates publicly available statistical data on freight transport, including international transport flows between countries, the total volumes of goods loaded and unloaded in all NUTS 3 regions, the distribution of transport distances and the shares of different types of cargo. The proposed methodology addresses data inconsistencies and missing information. The resulting demand matrices provide detailed insights into the volumes and types of freight exchanged via road transport between NUTS-3 regions throughout Europe.