General Performance Measurement

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Freight Management and Operations and other stakeholders are developing performance measures for freight transportation. Freight-specific performance measures help to identify needed transportation improvements and monitor their effectiveness. They also serve as indicators of economic health and traffic congestion.

National Freight Performance Measures
Methods to Improve Freight Performance, Reliability and Bottlenecks
Other Freight Performance Measurement Resources
Vehicle Probe Data Set Information
General Performance Measurement
Related Topics
Staff Contacts

National Freight Performance Measures

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration has published performance measures to assess system performance, freight movement, and the CMAQ program. The regulation calls for an increased level of transparency and accountability in establishing and achieving targets for performance impacting commuters and truck drivers.

For more information, please visit FHWA’s Office of Transportation Performance Management at the following link: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/rule.cfm

A Truck Freight Bottleneck Reporting Guidebook has been provided to assist States with the truck freight bottleneck reporting required by 23 U.S.C. 150(e)(4). The guidebook is available at:

Truck Freight Bottleneck Reporting Guidebook (FHWA-HOP-18-070)

Methods to Improve Freight Performance, Reliability and Bottlenecks

The FHWA conducted a workshop on methods to improve freight performance, reliability, and bottlenecks. This workshop provided information on practices to improve reliability and mobility of freight, including addressing congestion at freight bottlenecks. Discussion included transportation performance management to support freight planning and programming, freight-related transportation systems management and operations (TSMO), and freight mobility improvements to help address bottlenecks.

06/26/2024 Report on Methods to Improve Freight Performance, Reliability and Bottlenecks [PDF 8MB]
Presentation from the March 21, 2022 workshop is available at: [PDF 15.5MB]

Other Freight Performance Measurement Resources

Vehicle Probe Data Set Information

FHWA has acquired a 3rd national data set of average travel times on the National Highway System for use in its performance measures and management activities. This data set is also available to State Departments of Transportation and Metropolitan Planning Organizations to use for their performance management activities. The data set will be available monthly.

Information on the NPMRDS, including future webinars, and other help is all available on the NPMRDS web site at the following link: https://npmrds.ritis.org/analytics/

Archived Quarterly Technical Assistance Webinar

November 1, 2013 – Webinar Presentation
February 12, 2014 – Webinar Recording
May 15, 2014 – Webinar Recording
August 14, 2014 – Webinar Recording
November 13, 2014 – Webinar Recording
February 5, 2015 – Webinar Recording
May 5, 2015 – Webinar Recording
August 5, 2015*
November 3, 2015 – Webinar Recording
February 10, 2016 – Webinar Recording
May 10, 2016 – Webinar Recording
August 9, 2016*
November 1, 2016 – Webinar Recording
February 9, 2017 – Webinar Recording
May 4, 2017 – Webinar Recording
July 20, 2017 - Webinar Recording
November 7, 2017 – Webinar Recording
February 8, 2018 – Webinar Recording
May 7, 2018 – Webinar Recording
August 2, 2018 – Webinar Recording
November 8, 2018 – Webinar Recording
February 7, 2019 – Webinar Recording
May 7, 2019 – Webinar Recording (Part 1) Webinar Recording (Part 2) (*Note-there were technical difficulties during the webinar, so recording is in two parts.)
August 27, 2019 – Webinar Recording
November 12, 2019 – Webinar Recording
February 13, 2020 – Webinar Recording
May 5, 2020 - Webinar Recording
August 6, 2020 - Webinar Recording
November 5, 2020 - Webinar Recording