The present disclosure is generally directed to a system and method of measuring transport utilization of data that is to be multiplexed and transmitted over a digital transport facility. In a particular embodiment the method includes receiving at least one frame of a data channel at a time division multiplexing device, padding an unused portion of the frame with a number of stuff bits, determining a user traffic utilization measurement based on the number of stuff bits and based on the size of the data payload, and reporting the traffic utilization measurement. In this embodiment, the frame has a fixed data payload.