Public Comments

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U.S. Department
of Transportation

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety
Administration

May 7, 2026
Mr. Thomas J. Smith
U.S. Census Bureau
4600 Silver Hill Rd
Washington, DC 20233
Re: OMB No. 0607-0932: Commodity Flow Survey
Mr. Smith,
I write to share the critical role the Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) data plays in executing
the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) Office of Hazardous
Materials Safety (OHMS) mission, and to endorse the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and
U.S. Census Bureau’s continued collection of this data. PHMSA's mission is to advance the
safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials that are essential to our daily
lives. The agency’s risk-based approach to our safety mission requires a numerator: hazardous
materials incidents, and a denominator: how much of that hazardous material is being
transported. When incidents do occur, OHMS uses the CFS data- usually volume or number
of shipments of a given hazardous material or hazard class- to make a probabilistic risk
assessment.
PHMSA OHMS also uses CFS data to act as an efficient safety regulator. When the Agency
identifies regulatory changes with no impact to safety, CFS volume data allows for OHMS to
prioritize actions with the greatest cost savings for the American people. In early 2026,
OHMS modernized placarding requirements for some fuel shipments. And without the CFS
data, it would have been impossible to identify the $145m in cost savings that these
commonsense changes provide.
Simply put, the CFS is our primary source for understanding the size and characteristics of
our regulated community. Please continue collecting, publishing, and improving this survey
so that we may best execute the PHMSA OHMS safety mission.
Sincerely,
William Quade
Associate Administrator
Office of Hazardous Materials Safety
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration