The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported this week that its Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) headed up 0.8 percent from April to May on the heels of a 1.8 percent decrease from March to April.
According to BTS officials, the Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in freight shipments in ton-miles, which are then combined into one index. The index measures the output of the for-hire freight transportation industry and consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight.
At 122.7, the Freight TSI was 29.6 percent above April 2009’s low of 94.6, which was during the depths of the recession. And it was 0.5 percent below November’s 123.3, which is the historic peak for the Freight TSI since this data was first made available in 2000, according to BTS.
BTS said that there was a large increase in trucking, reversing an April decline, adding that waterborne also rose along with a smaller increase in pipeline. These increases outweighed declines in air freight, rail carloads, and rail intermodal to produce the 0.8 percent rise in the overall freight index in May. Personal income and employment increased in May, even as the Federal Reserve Board Industrial Production index and, manufacturers’ shipments declined. Revised data indicates that GDP declined in the first quarter of 2015, when the growth of the freight TSI slowed.
And since peaking in November 2014, BTS said the Freight TSI has alternated months of increases and decreases that left it still near the all-time high but 0.5 percent lower than in November, and at the same level as in January 2015. After dipping to 94.6 in April 2009, the index rose 29.6 percent in the succeeding 73 months.
On a year-to-date basis through May, shipments are flat compared to the end of 2014.