DOT Freight Transportation Index Rises 2.1%
The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index rose 2.1% in September from a year earlier, the seventh straight year-over-year gain.
The freight TSI gained 1% from August to a reading of 98.7, DOT’s Bureau of Trade Statistics said in its monthly report released Wednesday.
The index is 5.5% over its recent low of 93.5 reached in May 2009, when it was at its lowest level since June 1997. The TSI is 12.6% below its historic peak of 112.9, reached in May 2006.
Although the TSI rose 2.1% from September 2009 to September 2010, it remains below the level of every other September since 2001 when it was 97.5, DOT said.
The TSI, which uses 2000 as a base-year reading of 100, 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.
