DOT Freight Index Falls 6.5% in March
The Department of Transportation said its freight transportation services index fell 6.5% in March from a year earlier to its lowest level in more than six years.
The drop to 101.4 was the largest March-to-March drop in the 20-year history of TSI calculations, DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said in its monthly report Wednesday. The TSI fell 3.3% from February.
The index is at its lowest level since May 2002.
In the five years since March 2004, the index has dropped 7.7%, the fourth consecutive month in which the index has decline for a five-year period. In the last 10 years, the index is down 1.3%, the first 10-year decline recorded.
The TSI is a seasonally adjusted monthly index measuring the output of services provided by the for-hire transportation industries, including railroad, air, truck, inland waterways, pipeline and local transit.
