Truck Tonnage Index Up 0.6% in March

The seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index from American Trucking Associations (ATA) increased 0.6% in March, after jumping 1.9% the previous month.

February’s gain was less than the 2.8% reported on March 18, 2014.

Compared with March 2013, the SA index increased 3.1%, which is the largest year-over-year gain of 2014.

During the first quarter, tonnage plunged 2.5% from the previous quarter, which was the worst quarter-to-quarter reading since the economic recovery began in the third quarter of 2009. Compared with the first quarter 2013, tonnage rose 2.3%.

The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 129.4 in March, which was 12.1% above the previous month (115.5).

“Tonnage continued to claw its way out of the hole that was dug in December and January,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “However, with a cumulative gain of 2.5% during the last two months, we still have a way to go to offset the total loss of 5.2% in December and January.

According to ATA, trucking serves as a barometer of the U.S. economy, representing 68.5% of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation, including manufactured and retail goods.

Trucks hauled 9.4 billion tons of freight in 2012. Motor carriers collected $642.1 billion, or 80.7% of total revenue earned by all transport modes.

Category: General Update, Management