The amount of freight carried by the for-hire transportation industry rose 1.7 percent in November from October, rising after a one-month decline, according to the US Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics' (BTS) Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) released Wednesday.
November 2012 freight shipments were unchanged from November 2011, but rose 8.8 percent from November 2009, shortly after the end of the recession. The Freight TSI increased in November 2012, at least in part as a result of recovery from Hurricane Sandy, which depressed truck and freight rail traffic in October. Both rail freight and trucking showed large increases in November.
The Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in freight shipments by mode of transportation in tons and ton-miles, which are 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.