The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported this week that its Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) fell 0.1 percent from July to August following a 0.1 percent increase from June to July.
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 August Freight TSI at 109.0 is 15.6 percent higher than April 2009’s low point of 94.3 during the recession and is down 4.4 percent from the December 2011 reading of 114.0, which represents the all-time high since BTS first began collecting data in 1990.
And since April 2009, BTS said that freight shipments have risen in 25 of the last 40 months, increasing by a cumulative 15.6 percent during that time.
On an annual basis, August shipments are up 0.9 percent over August 2011 and 10.6 percent higher than August 2009, during what BTS labeled as “the trough of the recession.”
BTS officials said that the August Freight TSI continued a pattern of little change since January, which appears to reflect the rate of growth in the general economy.