For-hire freight declined 1.5 percent in February from January, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ Freight Transportation Services Index.
For the first two months of 2011, freight shipments measured by the Freight TSI were down 0.6 percent, following a 6.4 percent rise for 2010 and a 2.1 percent rise in during the final three months of 2010. Freight shipments have increased in 16 of the last 22 months.
BTS reported that shipments rose 12.9 percent over the last 22 months, starting in May 2009, after declining 15.7 percent in the previous 16 months beginning in January 2008.
The Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in freight shipments in ton-miles, which are then combined into one index. The index measures the output of the for-hire freight transportation industry and consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight.
