The federal government's Freight Transportation Services Index fell 1.4 percent in November from its October level, falling after a one-month rise.


The November decline was the third monthly decrease in four months in TSI Index tracked by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

At 107.6 in November, the freight TSI is at its lowest level since January 2004, when it was 106.5, and is down 4.9 percent from its historic peak of 113.1 reached in November 2005.

For the first 11 months of 2008, the index fell 0.7 percent. The index rose 1.3 percent in the first 11 months of 2007 before dropping in December to finish the year down by 0.1 percent.

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 November 2008 freight TSI level was 2.4 percent lower than the November 2007 level of 110.2. The freight index is at its lowest November level since 2003.

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.