DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics says Freight TSI is up slightly

Staff -- Logistics Management, 8/14/2008

WASHINGTON—The United States Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported this week that its Freight Transportation Services Index (Freight TSI) was up slightly in June from May.

With a 0.1 percent increase, the Freight TSI was up for the second straight month, coming in at 111.5 according to the BTS. This output is close to January’s performance and is up 3.3 percent since its recent low level of 108.0 in September 2007 and down 1.4 percent from its peak of 113.1 in November 2005.

On a year-over-year level, the BTS said that the June Freight TSI was 2.9 percent higher than June 2007’s 108.4. And for the first six months of 2008, the Freight TSI is up 2.9 percent, which represents its biggest hike for that time period since 2002.

The Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the for-hire transportation industries, and it includes data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines, and air freight.