Freight TSI rises in July

Sept. 10, 2008
The Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) rose 1.2 percent in July from its June level, rising for the fourth consecutive month, the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported

The Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) rose 1.2 percent in July from its June level, rising for the fourth consecutive month, the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported.

The freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the for-hire freight transportation industries. The index consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines, and air freight. It is a seasonally adjusted index that measures changes from the monthly average of the base year of 2000. It includes historic data from 1990 to the present.

For the first seven months of 2008, the freight index advanced 4.2 percent, its largest increase for the first seven months of the year since 2002. In 2007, the index dropped 0.4 percent in the first seven months of the year.

The freight index has increased in six of the first seven months this year, declining only in March. The April index, previously reported as unchanged from March, now shows a 1 percent rise as a result of this month’s downward revision of the March index described below. At 112.9 in July, the freight TSI was up 4.5 percent since its recent low of 108.0 in September 2007 and almost reached its historic peak of 113.1 reached in November 2005.

The July 2008 freight TSI level was 4.1 percent above the July 2007 level of 108.4, the largest July-to-July gain since 2004. Despite the modest gains since 2004, the freight index has increased 8.5 percent in five years and 11.6 percent in 10 years.

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