DOT Freight Index Rose 3.7% in April
The Department of Transportation said Wednesday its freight transportation services index rose 3.7% in April from a year ago.
The freight TSI slipped 1% month-to-month from March, DOT’s Bureau of Trade Statistics said in its monthly report.
The index’s reading is 107.5, compared with a baseline 100 reading in the year 2000, BTS said.
Freight shipments are up 0.6% for the four months of this year and have increased in 17 of the past 24 months. April’s freight shipments were about the same level as September 2008.
Freight shipments are down 2.8% in the five years from April 2006, though shipments are up 9.2% from April 2001, 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.
