March freight shipments (109.4 on the index) rose 0.8 percent from March 2011 and were at the fourth-highest level since the early recession month of July 2008 despite the 3.8 percent decline from December 2011 (113.7), which was the highest level in the 22-year history of the series.
After dipping to a recent low in April 2009 (94.3) – when freight shipments were at their lowest level since June 1997 (92.3) – shipments have increased in 23 of the last 35 months, rising 16.0 percent during that period.
The Freight TSI measures the month-to-month output of the for-hire freight transportation industry and consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight. The seasonally adjusted index includes historic data from 1990 to the present. The baseline year is 2000.