PHMSA, in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau (Census), sponsored an expansion of the 2022 Commodity Flow Survey to include supplemental questions about hazardous materials (hazmat) and collect new data from hazmat shippers related to DOT-regulated packaging. The collaborative effort led to the development of the 2021 – 2022 Expanded Hazmat Supplement, a first-of-its-kind public dataset, published by Census and PHMSA's Office of Hazardous Materials Safety.

The new data provides important statistics about the community of businesses that ship hazmat in DOT-regulated packaging using a variety of data dimensions, including: the type, quantity, weight of hazmat shipped, packaging type and specification, industry classification, geographical region, and primary mode of transportation. These data points will assist in conducting market research, economic analysis, and organizational planning that will expand public access to reliable information about the shipment of hazardous materials in the U.S. transportation system.

The new data will also benefit a variety of stakeholders including multi-level government partners, academic researchers, regulators, safety advocates, policy and industry leaders by enabling a better understanding of the nationwide community of businesses that support the commercial transportation of hazmat; a vital component of the U.S. economy valued at an estimated 1.7 trillion dollars annually.

The 2021-2022 Expanded Hazmat Supplement was a pilot project supported by the OHMS Research, Development & Technology (RD&T) program and can be accessed here. Additionally, Census has published the dataset as an experiential data product, which can be viewed here. Census has reviewed the public release data to ensure appropriate access, use, and disclosure avoidance protection of confidential source data. Estimates for both 2021 and 2022 are available for download. In addition to downloading the data, data users are strongly encouraged to review the technical documentation to understand the scope, methodology, and limitations of the 2021-2022 Expanded Hazmat Supplement dataset.

Suggestions for improvement and other feedback, including details on how organizations plan to utilize the new 2021-2022 Expanded Hazmat Supplement data are welcome. Questions and feedback can be sent via e-mail to the PHMSA at HAZMATRESEARCH@dot.gov.