Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Implementation of Car Chips in the Fuel Consumption Survey - ARCHIVED

The National Fuel Consumption Survey (FCS) was created in 2013 and is a quarterly survey that is designed to analyze distance driven and fuel consumption for passenger cars and other vehicles weighing less than 4,500 kilograms. The sampling frame consists of vehicles extracted from the vehicle registration files, which are maintained by provincial ministries. For collection, FCS uses car chips for a part of the sampled units to collect information about the trips and the fuel consumed. There are numerous advantages to using this new technology, for example, reduction in response burden, collection costs and effects on data quality. For the quarters in 2013, the sampled units were surveyed 95% via paper questionnaires and 5% with car chips, and in Q1 2014, 40% of sampled units were surveyed with car chips. This study outlines the methodology of the survey process, examines the advantages and challenges in processing and imputation for the two collection modes, presents some initial results and concludes with a summary of the lessons learned.