DOT Freight Index Hits All-Time High

The Department of Transportation on Wednesday said its freight transportation services index jumped 6.4% in December from a year ago and reached an all-time high.

The freight TSI climbed 3.9% month-to-month from November, the largest monthly increase in 17 years, DOT’s Bureau of Trade Statistics said in its monthly report.

The index’s reading rose to 113.7, the highest level in its 22-year history, compared with a baseline 100 reading in the year 2000, BTS said. The previous high was 113.3 in January 2005.

Freight shipments have risen in 20.6% in the last 32 months since dipping to a 94.3 reading in April 2009, BTS said.

The freight 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.