Joseph Bonney, Senior Editor | Dec 14, 2011 12:09PM EST
The amount of freight carried by for-hire transportation carriers fell 0.2 percent in October, ending a streak of four consecutive month-to-month increases, the Transportation Department reported.
The DOT’s Freight Transportation Services Index, which measures month-to-month changes in ton-miles, slipped to 109.4, down from its 2011 peak of 109.6 in September but the highest since July 2008.
After hitting a recession low of 94.3 in April 2009, freight shipments have risen 16 percent, increasing in 21 of the last 30 months through October.
October freight shipments rose 4 percent from a year earlier and 12.4 percent from October 2009 but are below the October record of 100.4 set in 2004 and 2005.
The Freight TSI is a seasonally adjusted gauge of the output of the for-hire freight transportation industry and consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight.
Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com.
