Freight shipments and expenditures readings saw declines in August, according to the new edition of the Cass Freight Index, which was recently issued by Cass Information Systems. Many freight transportation and logistics executives and analysts consider the Cass Freight Index to be the most accurate barometer of freight volumes and market conditions, with many analysts noting that the Cass Freight Index sometimes leads the American Trucking Associations (ATA) tonnage index at turning points, which lends to the value of the Cass Freight Index. What’s more, the Cass Transportation Index accurately measure changes in North American freight activity and costs based on $36 billion in paid freight expenses for the Cass customer base of hundreds of large shippers. Shipments fell 1.5% on a seasonally-adjusted (SA) basis, from July to August, and were down 11.0% on a two-year stacked change basis. “Container and intermodal volumes were also up from year-ago levels in August (as a reminder, the dataset for the Cass Freight Index contains North American domestic freight only).