Freight Index Falls to Seven-Year Low

A key government measure of U.S. freight shipping fell to its lowest level in seven years in April, the government reported.

The Freight Transportation Index fell 1.2 percent from March to April, the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the seventh time in the last nine months the index has declined.

 

Declining volume in trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight brought the index down after a 10 percent drop over a nine month period. At 100.2, the index is at the lowest level since April 2002 when it was 99.3. The Freight TSI is down 11.4 percent from its historic peak of 113.1 reached in November 2005.

 

The 1.2 percent decline in the first four months of 2009 was the second largest in the last decade, exceeded only by a 6.7 percent decline for the first four months of 2000, making it the largest so far in the 21st century.

 

The 8.5 percent decline in the Freight TSI from April 2008 to April 2009 was the largest April-to-April decline in the 20 years for which the TSI is calculated.

Contact Thomas L. Gallagher at tgallagher@joc.com.

Photo by rynosoft @ Flickr