DOT Freight Transportation Index Rises 3.2%
The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index rose 3.2% in October from a year earlier, the eighth straight year-over-year gain.
The freight TSI notched a 0.2% gain from September to a reading of 98.9, DOT’s Bureau of Trade Statistics said Wednesday in its monthly report.
Despite the increase, the index it remains the lowest level for an October since 2001, when it was at 98.7.
March was the first month since July 2008 in which the index exceeded its year-ago level and it has done so every month this year, DOT said.
The October index is 5.7% higher than its recent low of 93.5 of May 2009, when it was at the lowest level since June 1997. October’s reading is 12.4% off index’s historic peak reading of 112.9, set in May 2006.
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.
