BTS reports February Freight TSI is up 0.5 percent from January

The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today that its Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) increased 0.5 percent from January to February.

This slight increase comes on the heels of a 3.6 percent decline from December to January. The Freight TSI has seen sequential gains in five of the last six months.

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.

The BTS said that the February TSI at 110.3 is below last December’s 113.7, which stands as the highest Freight TSI on record since BTS began collecting data in 1990.

February shipments reached the second highest level since April 2008, said BTS. And shipments have seen gains in 23 of the last 34 months and have gone up a cumulative 16.9 percent during that time.