The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported this week that its Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) dropped 0.3 percent from May to June, following a 0.8 percent increase from April to May and a 1.8 percent decline 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 121.9, the Freight TSI was 28.8 percent above April 2009’s low of 94.6, which was during the depths of the recession. And it was 1.2 percent below last November’s 123.4, which is the historic peak for the Freight TSI since this data was first made available in 2000, according to BTS.
BTS attributed the 0.3 percent May to June decrease to declines in truck, water and rail intermodal shipments. For the April-to-June quarter, the 0.6 percent decline was the first quarterly decline since the second quarter of 2014, and the largest decline since the third quarter of 2012.
On a year-to-date basis through June, shipments are down 0.4 percent compared to the end of 2014.