North American Transportation Statistics (NATS) is a trilateral initiative of American, Canadian and Mexican agencies responsible for transport policy (i.e., the U.S. Department of Transportation, Transport Canada and the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes) and statistics (i.e., the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics Canada and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía). Transport regulatory reform was part of a larger effort to usher in new trade agreements. NATS was created with the North American Free Trade Agreement in the early 1990s to ensure the production of internationally comparable transport statistics.
Directed by a strategic planning committee, thematic working groups for the economy, energy and the environment, as well as freight and passengers, connect via email and conference calls. An annual interchange allows participants to meet and set priorities. Canada hosted the 2019 Interchange in Montréal from May 21 to 24. A series of plenaries and sessions were organized around the theme "Transportation Statistics—Beyond the Traditional Survey." Speakers included representatives from Airbiz Aviation, Intact, the City of Montréal, and the Railway Association of Canada and its member agencies.
Featured topics included the digital economy, alternative data sources and partnerships in the industry, as well as specific matters such as supply chain visibility platforms, the classification of ride-sharing services, metrics on network vulnerability and the use of geospatial methods for data on road accidents. NATS has evolved from producing tabular data and then providing online access to data to becoming a nexus for identifying best practices (e.g., trade in value added, or TiVA, and satellite accounts) and providing a network of international stakeholders. Learn more about NATS by visiting the North American Transportation Statistics site.