The Freight Analysis Framework (FAF), developed jointly by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), provides a comprehensive picture of freight movement across the United States. FAF integrates data from multiple sources to estimate freight flows by origin, destination, mode, and commodity type, covering both domestic and international shipments. It reports metrics such as tonnage, value, and ton-miles to capture the volume, economic impact, and distance of goods transported across the national multimodal network. The dataset includes projections through 2050, enabling long-term freight demand analysis and infrastructure planning at national, state, and metropolitan levels.
FAF data are essential for transportation planning, supply-chain resilience, and infrastructure investment. By linking freight patterns with industry output, employment, and GDP, FAF enables analysts to evaluate how economic growth and production shifts drive freight demand. On a data platform, it combines seamlessly with demographic and land-use data to identify logistics corridors, bottlenecks, and high-value trade routes. Public agencies use FAF to support investment prioritization and performance monitoring under federal programs such as the National Freight Policy and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The dataset’s mode-level detail—spanning truck, rail, air, water, and pipeline—makes it indispensable for modeling emissions, analyzing energy use, and assessing environmental impacts of freight transportation. Planners, logistics professionals, and researchers rely on FAF’s standardized, transparent methodology to forecast goods movement, evaluate network performance, and support data-driven decision-making in transportation, trade, and regional economic development.