The Transportation Services Index (TSI) for freight fell 0.5 percent in April from the March level, turning down after a one-month rise, according to information from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The freight level for April 2006 is 1.3 percent lower than the April 2005 level, the first decline from April of the previous year since 2000. For the first four months of 2006, the freight TSI rose 0.1 percent, the third consecutive rise in the January-to-April period.
The index includes historic data from 1990 to the present and measures changes from the monthly average of the base year of 2000.