The federal government's Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) rose 0.1 percent in June from its May level, rising for the second consecutive month.


The U.S Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that for the first six months of 2008, the freight index advanced 2.9 percent, its largest increase for the first six months of the year since 2002. In 2007, the index dropped 0.4 percent in the first half of the year before rising about the same amount in the last six months to finish virtually unchanged for the year.

Despite a big increase in May and a sharp decline in March, the freight index was at about the same level in June as in January. At 111.5 in June, the freight TSI was up 3.3 percent since its recent low of 108.0 in September 2007 but down 1.4 percent from its peak of 113.1 reached in November 2005.

The freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the for-hire freight transportation industries. The index consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight.

The TSI is a seasonally adjusted index that measures changes from the monthly average of the base year of 2000. It includes historic data from 1990 to the present.