The federal government's Freight Transportation Services Index rose 2.4 percent in January from its December level, matching its largest monthly increase in the last two years,
according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
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 January increase was the third rise in the last four months. At 111.5, the freight TSI is down 1.5 percent from its peak of 113.1 achieved in November 2005 but up 3.2 percent in the four months since its recent low of 108.0 in September 2007.
With the January increase of 2.4 percent, the freight index had its largest climb to start the year since the January 1993 increase of 4.2 percent.
The January freight TSI of 111.5 was 2.7 percent higher than the January 2007 level and remains 0.3 percent below the January 2006 level and 1.3 percent lower than the January 2005 level. Despite declines from recent January levels, the freight index has increased 7.9 percent in five years and 13.5 percent in 10 years.
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.