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After rising in July, the Transportation Services Index (TSI) dropped 0.8 percent in August to 124.5 — the largest month-over-month decline since February 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). However, the August index rose 6.7 percent compared with August 2003's 116.7 TSI.

August's Freight TSI dropped 1 percent to 125.6 compared with July's 126.9 index, but increased 6.1 percent compared with August 2003's 118.4 TSI.

Meanwhile, the Passenger TSI declined 0.4 percent to 122.3 compared with July's 122.7 index — the first drop in two months. However, the August TSI rose 8.2 percent compared with August 2003's 113.0 passenger index.

During a six-month period ending in August, the TSI rose 1.4 percent compared with the previous six months. The Freight and Passenger TSIs increased 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

BTS also reported that May's TSIs remain unchanged; the bureau considers June's, July's and August's indexes as preliminary.

The TSI is a measure of month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by for-hire transportation industries, including railroad, air, truck, inland waterways, pipelines and local transit. The index includes historic data from 1990 to the present; changes are measured against a base year of 1996.