General
This is a quarterly survey and is sent out in March (pricing for January, February and March), June (pricing for April, May and June), September (pricing for July, August and September) and December (pricing for October, November and December).
The prices are aggregated to compile the For-hire Motor Carrier Freight Services Price Index (FHMCFSPI). The index measures the changes in prices of For-hire Motor Carrier Freight Services under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 484 – truck transportation services. Businesses use these indexes to gain a better understanding of their industry and assess their performance, while Statistics Canada uses these indexes to deflate current dollar values and derive real growth and productivity from this sector of the economy.
There is a return envelope enclosed for your completed questionnaire. We ask that you return it within 15 days of receipt. If you prefer it is possible to complete the survey by telephone or you may fax it to us at the number on the cover page.
Your input is important to ensure data accuracy. Once received, the data reported on your questionnaire are confidential. The published data are in aggregate form ensuring our respondent, business, and price information remains confidential.
This first survey sets up the specifications that will be priced through time. We ask that you choose three different services (hauls) that are representative of your company under the NAICS where most of your revenue comes from. This could be either NAICS 48411- general local, 48412- general long distance (for the purpose of this survey long distance is greater than 50 miles or 80 kilometres), 48421- moving, 48422-specialized local, or 48423 specialized long distance (greater than 50 miles or 80 kilometers). Please choose services and customers that are representative and that can be priced for each month. It is important that the prices given for each month are for the same service (set of specifications) through time. If a service you choose to price for the survey is LTL (less than truck load), please only show pricing for that particular service, not the full truck if you have more than one LTL on the same truck. For example if your shipment consists of two LTL, a 2000 lb LTL and a 6000 LTL, then only track one of those.
Questionnaire description:
The questionnaire has 10 pages.
Cover page
Shows the name of the survey and the current quarter for which prices are required.
It also tells the purpose of the survey, has a confidentiality statement, a record linkage statement, a participation statement, a transmission disclosure, and return procedures.
At the bottom is an empty block. This space is in case we have any instructions to ask of you. For this survey it is rarely used.
To the right at the bottom is a space for you to make changes to company and contact information, should it be different than what is showing.
There is also a reference label, shown above the company name and address. The Q plus the 8 digits following is your reference number.
Page 2.
Is blank for printing purposes.
Page 3.
Please provide a breakdown in percentage of revenue by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) category for your company. After the initial completion, this section will only need updating if there are changes to your annual revenue breakdown by NAICS.
(Pages 4 & 5 refer to service 1, pages 6 & 7 refer to service 2, and pages 8 & 9 refer to service 3. The pricing you provide for service 1, 2 and 3 should be from the NAICS category that provides most of your revenue. Please provide three services from the same NAICS category. The Pricing portion should be for actual transaction prices charged to your customers excluding taxes. Please use the 15th of the month as your pricing day or the closest working day.)
Page 4.
For the initial set up of service 1, please complete the sections “service description”, “terms of transaction” and the “Price”. Once we have received your information from this initial set up of service 1, these sections can be pre-filled to aid you in your next completion. For the initial completion we ask that you complete page 4 & 5 for service 1
The hauls should be representative of your business and possible to price each month
You will notice an area in the top right on pages 4, 6, and 8 “Service Description for substitution”. This area is used if the service you are pricing is no longer available. In this case, please provide another set of service specifications that may be priced into the future. If pricing for the original service is unavailable only for a month or two, we ask that you provide an estimate for the original service for the missing months until the service is back.
Page 5.
For future surveys, this page is what you will need to complete for service 1. This is where you will fill in pricing for the quarter showing on the cover page as page 4 can be pre-filled with information you have given us previously.
Note on the monthly Price section:
Please price as at the 15th of the month or the closest business day.
The Price and any dollar values under DISCOUNT or SURCHARGE should be in Canadian dollars. (It is possible to report in US dollars but if you need to please state that it is US dollars underneath the amount. If US funds are reported, any discounts or surcharges can only be shown in percentage values.)
If this transaction has a discount(s) please tick the type. The value may be reported in dollars “$” or percent “%” in the spaces provided.
It is important that you tick “Yes” if the amount is already included in the PRICE or tick “No” if the amount has to be deducted from the price to come to the total price.
If this transaction has a surcharge(s) please tick the type. The value may be reported in dollars “$” or percent “%” in the spaces provided.
It’s important that you tick “Yes” if the amount is already included in the PRICE or tick “No” if the amount needs to be added to the price to come to the total price.
If there were no discounts applied to this price, please tick “Not applicable”.
If there are no surcharges applied to this price, please tick “Not applicable”.
Note: After each month of pricing information there is an area for “reason for price change”. For any price change from the previous month please indicate whether the price change was due to:
- change to the contract
- change in service or terms
- market conditions
- labour costs
- annual price change
- competition
- fuel
- other reasons-please explain.
Page 6.
For the initial set up of service 2, please complete the sections “service description”, “terms of transaction” and the “Price”. Once we have received your information from this initial set up of service 2, these sections can be pre-filled to aid you in your next completion. For the initial completion we ask that you complete page 6 & 7 for service 2.
Page 7.
For future surveys this page is what you will need to complete. This is where you will fill in pricing for the quarter showing on the cover page as page 6 can be pre-filled with information you have given us previously.
Page 8.
For the initial set up of service 3, please complete the sections “service description”, “terms of transaction” and the “Price”. Once we have received your information from this initial set up of service 3, these sections can be pre-filled to aid you in your next completion. For the initial completion we ask that you complete page 8 & 9 for service 3.
Page 9.
For future surveys this page is what you will need to complete for service 3. This is where you will fill in pricing for the quarter showing on the cover page as page 8 can be pre-filled with information you have given us previously.
Page 10.
This page has space for you to provide information on industry issues, trends or comments you would like to make. The certification area is for the person who completed the questionnaire or who we would contact if further information is required, for example missing data or price change without reasons noted.
It also asks for the time it took you to complete the questionnaire.
There is also a reminder that the next questionnaire will be pre-filled. This can only happen once we have received your approval to pre-fill pricing information you gave us previously for your convenience. Form included.
Thank you for your time and co-operation. Should you have any questions about the For-hire Motor Carrier Freight Service Price Report please contact our Initialization Unit at 1-800-478-5086 or ppdinitializunit@statcan.gc.ca or ppd-trans-dpp@statcan.gc.ca .
Please quote your reference numbers when calling back, It can be found in the label line on the cover page. It begins with the letter Q plus 8 digits.