The Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI), which is based on the amount of freight carried by the for-hire transportation industry, rose 2.7% in December from November, rising to the highest level since the start of the pandemic, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS). The index reached the level of 136.3, the highest level since 136.9 in January 2020.
The index rose 8.4% since dropping to 125.7 in April at the start of the pandemic.
Annually, from December 2019 to December 2020 the index fell 0.1% compared to a decline of 0.6% from December 2018 to December 2019 and a rise of 2.9% from December 2017 to December 2018 (Tables 1, 2, and 2A).
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the freight TSI rose 3.3%, the second consecutive quarterly increase and the largest quarterly rise since the fourth quarter of 2017
