The amount of freight carried by the for-hire transportation industry rose 0.4% in August from July, reaching the highest level since July 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics' Freight Transportation Services Index, released late last week.

BTS reported that the level of freight shipments, measured by the Freight TSI, rose 2.9% in the last three months to reach the new level.

BTS says shipments in August 2011 (108.7 on the index) were at the highest level since July 2008 (109.9). July 2008 was followed by six straight months of decline. After dipping to a recent low in April 2009 (94.3), freight shipments increased in 19 of the last 28 months. Shipments rose 15.3 percent over the last 29 months starting from April 2009 after declining 15.6 percent from February 2008 to April 2009.

Year-to-date stats for the first eight months of 2011 show freight shipments measured by the index were up 1.6 percent.

Although August 2011 freight shipments rose 4.6 percent from August 2010 and 10.3 percent from August 2009, they remain below the all-time high for the month of August (111.4) reached in 2005.

The Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in freight shipments by mode of transportation 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.