DOT Freight Index Falls Year-Over-Year in July
The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index fell year-over-year in July by the most in 20 years, but showed an increase from June, DOT said Thursday.
The 13.5% decline in the TSI from July 2008 was the biggest in the decline in the 20 years in which the index has been calculated, DOT said in its monthly report.
The index showed a 1.6% gain in July from June, the first monthly increase since February and the biggest since January 2008, DOT said.
“The rise in the [month-to-month] index . . . is a sign that the economic recovery is beginning,” DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement.
“Despite this tangible sign of progress, we still have a long way to go [and] will redouble our efforts to make sure transportation infrastructure is one of the drivers for the future,” he said
The July TSI reading of 95.5 is a 1.6% increase from the recent low of 94 in May and June, when it was at its lowest level since June 1997.
It is down 15.4% from its historic peak of 112.9 reached in May 2006, with the year 2000 as a baseline level of 100.
The 4.8% decline in the first seven months of 2009 was the second largest this decade, exceeded only by the 5.9% decline in the first seven months of 2000.
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.
