The Transportation Department’s Freight Transportation Index, which measures month-to-month changes in ton-miles shipped, rose 0.9 percent in March from February for the third consecutive monthly gain.

The March Freight TSI rose 2.6 percent from March 2009, the first year-to-year increase in the freight index since July 2008.

The freight index rose 1.6 percent in the first quarter, marking only the sixth quarterly increase in the past 20 quarters but the second in the last three quarters.

The Freight TSI stood at 97.8 in March, a 4.5 percent increase from the low of 93.5 in May 2009. The index is down 13.4 percent from its historic peak of 112 in May 2006, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported.

The index is a seasonally adjusted index that measures changes in shipments by for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight. It measures changes from the base year of 2000.

The index has risen 4.5 percent since June after declining 15.3 percent in the previous 10 months beginning in August 2008. The index has risen in eight of the last 10 months.

Source: JOC