Transport Malta, the data provider for the National Statistics Office’s news release on motor vehicle statistics (Q1 2012; 086/2012), claims to follow a new format in order to “align statistical collection with international counterparts (Eurostat/ITF/UNECE) according to Transport Glossary 4th edition”.

There is nothing in the glossary that classifies private passenger cars, private motorcycles or, for that matter, minibuses as “other” as is shown on table 1 (stock of licensed motor vehicles).

The glossary does not give a “commercial vehicles” class. What it does is that it classifies goods road vehicles (B.II.A-21) into light goods vehicles (G.V.W up to 3,500kg - B.II.A-22) and heavy goods vehicles (G.V.W. over 3,500kg - B.II.A-23).

In table 1, the latter two classes are lumped together under “commercial vehicles”, which includes special purpose vehicles (B.II.A-35) such as some police/army vehicles or fire trucks and also work-related vehicles owned by the government that are not involved in commercial activities.

The addition of licensed vehicles according to fuel type is commendable (table 8) but the numerically important groups of vehicles, private passenger cars, LGVs and HGVs, need to be classified separately.

The “new” format does not leave any possibility of cross referencing previous NSO road vehicle statistic releases except for some vehicle categories and totals. The data on scrapped vehicles disappeared in 2011. It reappeared this year but there is no way of comparing to past data because of the new format.

The former classification of vehicles into classes 1 to 6 according to engine capacity may seem irrelevant today but still holds relevance in order to assess consumer choices and to keep track of what is being scrapped, garaged or exported. After the introduction of the new vehicle tax regime in 2009, of relevance today is the classification of vehicle data according to CO2 (tax band) emission and EURO emission standard categories for both private vehicles and also for “commercial vehicles”.

Collector’s vehicles (classic, vintage or historical would rarely form part of daily traffic density) and cars used only for sporting events should start showing up as a separate sub-category.

Road vehicle statistics releases should include at least end-of-year updates with regard to driving licence holder statistics accorfing to age and gender and also a breakdown of the age of vehicles on Maltese roads (excluding collectors’ vehicles).

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.