The federal Transportation Services Index for freight fell 1 percent to 129.5 in February, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported.
Despite the slight drop from January, the February 2005 level of freight traffic still was 4.5 percent higher than in February 2004.
The overall Transportation Services Index — which tracks all for-hire transportation, including railroads, pipelines and passenger airlines — likewise fell 1 percent in February, to 128.4.
The baseline for both indexes is the activity level in 1996, which is set at 100. The indexes therefore demonstrate how much traffic has increased in the past nine years.
