The US Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics announced reported Wednesday that the amount of freight carried by the for-hire transportation industry declined 1.5 percent in February from January, falling after two consecutive monthly increases.
Freight shipments measured by the Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) rose 4.1 percent from February 2010 to February 2011, although shipments did decline 0.6 percent year-over-year for the first two months of 2011.
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.