The Freight Transportation Services Index fell 0.4 percent in July from its June level, falling for the second consecutive month to its lowest level since February, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported today, Sept. 12.
The July decline was the third decrease in the freight index in four months. At 108.5, the Freight TSI is down 4.1 percent from its peak of 113.1 achieved in November 2005, but up 0.2 percent from its recent low of 108.3 in November 2006.
For the first seven months of 2007, the Freight TSI was down 0.3 percent. It was the third decline in the past five years for the Freight TSI during the first seven months of the year.
The July Freight TSI of 108.5 was down 2.9 percent from its July 2006 level, the first July-to-July decrease since July 2001 and the largest decline since a 3.2 percent drop from July 1999 to July 2000.
The July index is at its lowest July level since July 2003, 2.0 percent lower than the July 2005 level and 1.5 percent lower than the July 2004 level. Despite the recent declines, the freight index has increased 5.4 percent in five years and 14.5 percent in 10 years.
The Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the for-hire freight transportation industries, including trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight. It includes historic data from 1990 to the present. The baseline year for the index is 2000.
