INTRODUCTION –TERMS, DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS

The Transport Statistics Quarterly includes data on Transport, Storage, and Postal and courier activities. This data is subject to changes due to various reasons, such as completing missing data, updating temporary data, and others.

ECONOMIC STATISTICS

In the Transport Statistics Quarterly No. 1/2012, there was a transition from base year 1990 to base year 2010. The data were calculated retroactively as of the quarterly publication No. 1/2008 in accordance with the new base year.

The definition of the enterprises included in this category is based on the publication Standard Industrial Classificationof All Economic Activities,2011.[1]

In the Transport Statistics Quarterly No. 3/2013, there was a transition from the Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, 1993 to the Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, 2011. Therefore, starting from the publication No. 3/2013, the Communications industry is not included in the publication. The order of the tables was adjusted to the order of the industries in the 2011 Classification.

A.The Groups(economic activity codes)included in this industry are as follows:

1.Land transport and transport via pipeline (49): This division includes transport of passengers and freight via road and rail, as well as freight transport via pipeline.

1.1Transport via railways (rail services) (491): This group includes transport of passengers and/or freight on inter-urban rail networks, as well as freight transport on short-line railroads. Excludes:Passenger transport on urban and suburban railways, related activities such as switching tracks, shunting to side tracks, and operation of railroad infrastructure.

1.1.1Passenger rail transport, interurban (4911) includes: Passenger transportby inter-urban railways, operation of sleeping carsor dining cars in railways by railway companies. Excludes:Passenger transport on urban railways, operation of terminals and railroad infrastructure, operation of sleeping cars or dining cars by separate units.

1.1.2Freight rail transport (4912) includes: Freight transport on railroads. Excludes:Storage, operating freight terminals, and other cargo handling.

1.2Other land transport (492) includes: All types of land-based transport (roads, railways, and the like) using various means of land transport, such as: electric rail, subways, elevated railways, cable cars, buses, etc. Excludes: Inter-urban passenger transport, freight railway transport, and transport of patients by ambulance.

1.2.1Bus services on scheduled routes (4921) includes: Buses and minibuses operating on a fixed time schedule, along scheduled routes,withfixed stations for the picking up and setting down of passengers. Includes: Urban, suburban and inter-urban bus services. Also includes: Town-to-airport lines operating on a fixed time schedule. Excludes: Passenger tour transport and special bus trips, special taxis that pick up passengers and transport them to the airport.

1.2.2Freight transport by road (4923) includes: Road transport of all types of freight: logging haulage, stock haulage, refrigerated haulage, heavy haulage, bulk haulage, container haulage, haulage of vehicles, transport of waste and waste materials without collection or disposal. Also includes: Deliveries of food from supermarkets, furniture removal and dismantling, freight transport by man or animal-drawn vehicles. Excludes:log hauling within the forest as part of logging operations, distribution of water by trucks, waste transport as part of waste collection activities, operation of terminal facilities for handling freight, crating and packing services for transport, postal and courier activities, and renting of trucks with or without driver.

1.3Transport via pipeline (493)

1.3.1Transport via pipeline (4930) includes: transport of gases, liquids, slurry,and other commodities via (long-distance) pipelines. Also includes: Operation of pump stations. Excludes:Distribution of gas, water, or steam, and transport of water, liquids, etc.by truck.

2.Water and air transport; storage and support activities for transportation (50, 51, 52)

2.1Water transport (50) includes: Transport of passengers and freight over water, whether scheduled or not. Also includes: Operation of towing or pushing boats, cruise or sightseeing boats, ferries, water taxis, etc.

2.2Air transport (51)includes: Transport of passengers or freight by air or via space.Excludes: Repair of aircraft or aircraft engines and support activities, such as the operation of airports. Also excludes use of aircraft, but not for the purpose of transportation, such as crop spraying, aerial advertising, or aerial photography.

2.3Storage and support activities for transportation (52) includes: Storage and support activities for transportation, such as operation of transport infrastructure (e.g., airports, harbours, tunnels, bridges, etc.), the activities of transport agencies, and cargo handling.

2.3.1Support activities for transportation (522) includes: Activities supporting the transport of passengers or freight, such as operation of parts of the transport infrastructure or activities related to handling freight before or after transport or between transport segments. Also includes: The operation and maintenance of all transport facilities.

2.3.2.1Service activities incidental to water transportation (port services) (5222) includes: Activities related to water transport of passengers, animals, or freight: Operation of terminal facilities such as harbours and piers;operation of waterway locks;pilotage and berthing activities;loading and unloading of goods, transhipment (unloading cargo from one ship and loading it onto another), cargo handling,anchoring services,salvage activities, and lighthouse activities. Excludes:Other cargo handling and operation of marinas.

2.3.2.2Service activities incidental to air transportation (airport services) (5223) includes: Support activities for air transport of passengers, animals, or freight, such as: Operation of terminal facilities, operation of airports, and operation of ground services: air-control-towers, communication services, refuelling services provided by airport administration for aircraft, runway services (transmission, signalling, etc.), loading and unloading services.Excludes:Other cargo handling and operation of flight schools.

3.Postal and courier activities (53). This division includes: Postal and courier activities, such as pickup, transport, and delivery of letters and parcels by post under various arrangements.

B.Revenue

A datum that consists of a summation of items or periods is liable to differ by approximately 0.1 from the actual summation, due to rounding off of data for the purpose of their presentation in the tables.

1.Revenue at current prices is defined as the total receipts of the company, in cash or in liabilities, for services performed during the reporting period, without taking into consideration the date of the payment. The revenue is at current market prices, i.e. including taxes (as of 1.7.76– V.A.T.) and excluding subsidies.

2.Revenue at fixed prices is defined as the total value of the output of the industry in real terms (at base year prices).

2.1Revenue at fixed prices for the shortest period covered by the data are published (a month or a quarter), is calculated by one of the two methods below:

2.1.1By the Paasche method– by multiplying the quantities of goods sold in the report period by the prices prevailing in the base period:

When: Pij = price of product i at period j.

Pio = price of product i at base period.

Qij = quantity sold of product i at period j.

Qio = quantity sold of product i at base period.

This method of calculation is used in railwayand airport services.

2.1.2By the deduction of the revenue at current prices from the influence of changes in prices:

This method of calculation is used in bus transport,water and air transport,and port services.

2.2Revenue at fixed prices for a period longer than the base report period (a quarter, if monthly figures are also published, or a year) is obtained by summing up the monthly or quarterly data, as appropriate.

2.3Revenue at fixed prices for an item that is the total of several sub-items is obtained by summing up the revenue at fixed prices of the sub-items.

3.Revenue at base prices is defined as the sum of the receipts of the company, in cash or in liabilities, for services performed during the reporting period, without taking into account the date of the payment. The revenue is in current prices, including subsidies and not including V.A.T.

C.Indices

The base of the indices is 2010 average = 100.0

1.Price index– The price index for the shortest period covered by the data (a month or a quarter), is calculated by one of the two methods below:

1.1Price index– calculated according to the Laspeyre method– by measuring changes in the nominal value of a basket of services whose composition was determined in the base period.

This method of calculation is used for calculating price indices of bus transport,water and air transport and port services.

1.2Price indices per output unit measure the changes in the average revenue
(= price) from an output unit, by deduction of the revenue at current prices from the value of output at base year prices.

This method of calculation is used in railway and airport services.

2.The price indexfor a period longer than the base period of the report (a quarter, if monthly data are also published, or a year), and for an item forming the total of sub-items, is always obtained by dividing the revenue at current prices by the revenue at fixed prices.

D. Transition from Base Year 1990 to Base Year 2010

As of the Transport Statistics Quarterly 1/2012, data are calculated and published based on 2010 average = 100.0.

In the framework of transitioning to a new base year, several changes in the calculation method of revenue at fixed prices and price indices were made. Also, updates were made to the current revenue, as a result of adjustments made following the changes in the enterprises' activities over the last years. Due to these changes, as of the 1/2012 Quarterly (data for years 2008-2011),care should be taken when comparing absolute numbers of revenue, both in current and in fixed prices, to those published earlier.

In order to enable comparisons with data from previous years, as of the 1/2012 Quarterly data are calculated using the same calculation methods beginning with the 2008 data, and are published on the same basis (2010).

To make comparisons to data based on 1990 average= 100.0, the 2008 indices must be used as chaining coefficients:

Chained Index
Based on 1990)) / ═ / Index for Chaining
(Based on 2010) / × / 2008 Index based on 1990
2008 Index based on 2010

E.Seasonal Adjustment, Festival and Trading Day Effects

A detailed explanation of seasonal adjustment and trend estimation is published in“Seasonal and Prior Adjustment Factors for 2015, Trends for 2011-2015” on the CBS internet site.

1.Combined factors for the adjustment of the series are the product of prior adjustment factors and seasonal factors.

1.1 The prior adjustment factors are calculated using the special method developed by the Central Bureau of Statistics for the combined estimation of Jewish festival dates and trading day effects in Israel.

1.2 The seasonal factors are calculated using the X-12-ARIMA seasonal adjustment method, developed by the U.S. Census Bureau.

2.The seasonally adjusted series is obtained by dividing the original data by the combined factors. This series is calculated anew each month (quarter) on the basis of the data that includes the current observation. The method is called Concurrent Seasonal Adjustment.

3.The trendseries

3.1Trend estimates are calculated according to an improved method, based on the Henderson moving averages.

4.Seasonally and trend adjusted data in a composite series: The seasonally adjusted series of the composite series is derived by the indirect method, i.e.: as the total of seasonally adjusted series.The trend of the composite series is estimated based on the sum of the seasonally adjusted sub-series, and after removal of abnormal observations. As a result, the trend datum in a composite series does not equal the total of the trend data of two sub-series.

Employment, Wages and Labour Compensation

  1. Employee jobs – Number of jobs of workers (permanent and temporary) who worked for at least one day during the surveyed month (or were temporarily on paid leave due to illness, vacation, army reserve duty, etc.) that appear on the payrolls of establishments or institutions. Jobs appearing on the payrolls of more than one establishment or institution in the same month were counted as many times as they appeared on the payrolls, so that the data actually refer to the number of jobs for which wages were paid that month.
  2. Wages – Remuneration in cash or in kind payable by an employer to an employee in return for work done during the accounting period, including compensation for time that the employee did not work, such as yearly vacation, absences, and other paid vacations. Wages include: Remuneration in cash: Payments such as basic wages, cost-of-living allowances, seniority payments, advance payments, overtime, premiums, various benefits, allowances, grants and supplements (current or non-recurring), such as: on-call, shifts, 13th-month salary, transportation, education and proficiency allowances, car allowance, and convalescence pay. Remuneration in kind: Payments such as contributions for car benefits, for mobile phones, holiday gifts, courses, on-the-job training, and travel abroad. Wages do not include: Social contributions payable by employers such as: pension funds, provident funds, study funds, national insurance, and health insurance. Wages also do not include severance payments.
  3. Supplementary expenses for wages – Social contributions payable by the employers and imputed contributions to pension expenses for employed persons, which derive from the employer’s obligation to pay the workers retirement pensions instead of contributing to pension funds. Includes supplementary expenses for wages (on the basis of time/unit work) and salary (on a monthly basis).
  4. Compensation for employee jobs (formerly: Compensation of employees) – the total expenditure for wages and auxiliary expenditures for wages. “Compensation for employee jobs” does not include taxes on wages and salaries, such as payroll tax and employers’ tax.

The quarterly presents two series on employment and wages:

A.One type of series, in Table 5, is based on monthly processing of a sample of employers' reports (Form 102) to the National Insurance Institute on wages and workers.

B.A second type of series, in the other tables, is based on direct reporting by the main companies. This series includes, in addition to data on employee jobs and wages, data on compensation for employee jobs. In some of the groups, also includes data on actual man-days worked.

ROAD TRANSPORT

A.Motor Vehicles

Motor vehicles include all types of motor vehicles registered at the Licensing Office, and having valid licenses on December 31 of the survey year, or licenses that expired during the same year. The number of motor vehicles excludes: army and police vehicles; towed vehicles; tractors; vehicles of foreign citizens and of holders of provisional licenses; vehicles registered in the Judea and Samaria Area; vehicles of tourists staying in Israel less than three months; diplomatic and U.N. vehicles; and the like. For detailed explanations, see"Motor Vehicles 2013".

B.Traffic Counts on Non-Urban Roads

1.Daily traffic volume on road is defined as the number of vehicles passing over a given road section during a given time period.

2.Road section is defined as a section of road bounded by two junctions; with the traffic volume on the next section, after the junction, differing by 20% from the traffic volume on the first section. A road section is also defined when a road becomes an urban road.

3.The source of the data is traffic counts carried out by the Central Bureau of Statistics by means of mechanical counters installed on non-urban roads, which measure the traffic passing over a certain section. The counts are carried out once every year, for a week each time.

4.Average daily traffic flow (formerly: Average daily traffic volume) is the average flow of vehicles past a specific enumeration point on the road network. Counting may be performed manually or automatically, continuously or in selected periods. Calculated on the basis of total counts in the same year.

C.Road Accidents

1.A road accidentwith casualties is defined as a road accident involving at least one road vehicle in motion, resulting in at least one injured or killed person.

2.Data on road accidents include accidents with injured persons which involved at least one civilian (including police) vehicle or civilian pedestrian or passenger, and which were registered by the Israel Police Force in Road Accident Files (“R.A. files”).

3.The source of the data for the year is the Road Accidents with Injured Persons files, received monthly from the Israel Police Force, and processed by the CBS.

3.1Severity of injury:

3.1.1Person killed in a road accident: a person who died in a road accident, or a person who was injured in a road accident and died of his or her injuries within 30 days.

3.1.2Person seriously injured in a road accident: A person who was injured in a road accident and was hospitalized for a period of 24 hours or more, and not for observation only.

3.1.3Person slightly injuredin a road accident: A person who was injured in a road accident and was not hospitalized, or was hospitalized for a period of less than 24 hours or was hospitalized for observation only.

3.2Severity of accident:

3.2.1Fatal road accident: A road accident in which at least one person was killed, or a road accident in which at least one person was injured and died of his or her injuries within 30 days.

3.2.2Serious road accident: A road accident in which at least one person was seriously injured, and in which no one was killed.

3.2.3Slight road accident: A road accident in which at least one person was slightly injured, and in which no one was killed or seriously injured.

3.3Severe accidents: include fatal accidents and serious accidents.

EXPLANATIONS AND COMMENTS ON THE TABLES

Splitting/merging of enterprises that are not in the same economic activity results in increases/decreases in data, such as revenue data or work inputs, when there is not necessarily a change in activity in the economy. That is, a change in a legal entity may cause a change in economic activity data, even if the activity did not in fact change.

Table 1: Starting in August 2013, the National Accounts data for Israel for 2006–2012 were updated, and as a result so were the current data. The updates included methodological changes resulting from a transfer to a new manual (SNA2008), changes resulting from combining results of input and output tables, and a transferto the Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities 2011 (ISIC Rev 4).