As part of our news rotation on the Hot Shot Trucking blog, today sees the addition of a regular review of The Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI). Officially compiled by the United States Department of Transporation, the TSI information is released with the assistance of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and the index measures the total movement of freight and passengers.
Seasonally adjusted the data provides a good indication of the pulse and overall health of the nationwide trucking industry on a month-to-month basis but perhaps more importantly when comparing year-over-year data.
Also encouraging is that the February index sits at a point that is 2.4 percent higher than February of 2014. Industry experts have attributed the February decline, which wasn't anticipated, to a series of extreme winter storms that impacted large sections of the country during the month. That explanation certainly makes sense to us as it seemed that every four or five days another major storm was causing transportation chaos to much of the nation throughout the month in question.
For more information, please visit the U.S. DOT website under 'news'.