Cass Freight Index
Freight shipments +1.9% a year, last good reading Sep 2026. Cass freight shipments vs a year ago. Cass Freight Index and the other weird recession indicators are on one page, each with its latest reading.
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Cass freight shipments, Sep 2026: 1.062 (Jan 1990 = 1.00), +1.9% on a year before.
Truck tonnage, Aug 2026: 112.8, −1.6% on a year before.
Rail carloads, Aug 2026: 990,805, +2.3% on a year before.
Three monthly freight series from FRED, each against the same month a year before: the Cass Freight Index for shipments (FRGSHPUSM649NCIS), the ATA truck tonnage index (TRUCKD11) and rail freight carloads (RAILFRTCARLOADSD11).
Cass Information Systems builds its freight index from the freight bills of its whole client base, by the month Cass processes them. The shipments index counts volumes against January 1990 = 1.00, adjusted to a 21-day work month.
Cass also publishes an expenditures index (what shippers spent); this gauge shows shipments only.
They come out at different times, so each row has its own latest month.
Source: FRED. Last good reading Sep 2026.