NEW Economic Freight Index from BTS: The November 2025 Truck-Rail Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) Rose 0.6% from October 2025 and Fell 0.3% from November 2024
BTS 2026-01
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The Truck-Rail Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) rose 0.6% in November from October, rising for the month after two months of decline, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). From November 2024 to November 2025 the index fell 0.3%.
The Truck-Rail Freight TSI measures the amount of freight carried by the freight railroads and for-hire truckers. The Truck-Rail Freight TSI combines truck and rail using the same methodology as the Freight TSI (the latter also incorporates monthly data from air freight, pipeline, and water). BTS releases the Truck-Rail Freight TSI about two weeks in advance of the Freight TSI to provide an early glimpse into the trends shaping freight transportation services.
Analysis: The Truck-Rail Freight TSI increased in November due to seasonally adjusted increases in rail carloads and trucking while rail intermodal volumes decreased.
The table below shows the Truck-Rail Freight TSI and its changes in the context of other important monthly economic indicators. The table shows seasonally adjusted indicators unless noted.
The Truck-Rail Freight TSI in Comparison to Other Economic Indicators
| Economic Indicator | September | October | November |
| Truck-Rail Freight Transportation Services Index | 136.0 | 134.1 | 134.9 |
| Percent Change | -1.1 | -1.4 | 0.6 |
| Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Industrial Production Index | 101.7 | 101.6 | 101.8 |
| Percent Change | 0.1 | -0.1 | 0.2 |
| FRB Manufacturing (percent change) | 0.0 | -0.4 | 0.0 |
| FRB Mining (percent change) | -0.7 | -0.8 | 1.7 |
| FRB Utilities (percent change) | 1.1 | 2.6 | -0.4 |
| Institute for Supply Manufacturing Index (percent) (50+ = expansion) |
49.1 | 48.7 | 48.2 |
| Percentage Point Change | 0.4 | -0.4 | -0.5 |
Revisions: Monthly data has changed from previous releases due to the use of concurrent seasonal analysis, which results in seasonal analysis factors changing with the addition of data each month. BTS will release a revised November Truck-Rail Freight TSI in next month's release.
BTS scheduled the release of the December 2025 index for February 2, 2026.
See Seasonally-Adjusted Transportation Data for historical data from 2000 to the present and numbers for individual modes.
Looking for tables? BTS moved all tables online to streamline the monthly release.
Brief Explanation of the Index
The Truck-Rail Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the freight railroads and for-hire trucking companies. The Freight TSI includes these modes as well air freight, inland waterways transportation and pipeline transportation. Combined, truck and rail freight historically comprise 70 to just over 80% of the Freight TSI. The Truck-Rail Freight TSI is released approximately two weeks earlier than the full Freight TSI, in order to provide an early glimpse into freight trends. The Freight TSI can be found at data.bts.gov.
Both the Truck-Rail Freight TSI and the Freight TSI tell us how the output of transportation services increased or decreased from month to month. These indexes can be examined together with other economic indicators to produce a better understanding of the current and future course of the economy. The movement of the indexes over time can be compared with other economic measures to understand the relationship of changes in transportation output to changes in Gross Domestic Product.
The Truck-Rail Freight TSI consists of:
- For-hire trucking; and
- Railroad freight services (including rail based intermodal shipments such as containers on flat cars).
The index does not include private trucking, courier services, or the US Postal Service.
The Truck-Rail Freight TSI includes only domestic "for-hire" rail and truck transportation. For-hire transportation consists of freight transport services provided by a firm to external customers for a fee.
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