July truck tonnage sees gains, reports American Trucking Associations

Truck tonnage levels headed up for just second time in the last 17 months in July, according to data recently issued by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

The ATA’s advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 0.3%, to 113.7 (2015=100), in July, following a 1.8% decline in June, to a downwardly revised 113.3 reading. On an annual basis, the July SA reading fell 0.9%, following a 0.6% annual decrease in June.

The ATA’s not seasonally-adjusted (NSA) index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment and the metric ATA says fleets should benchmark their levels with, came in at 116.7 in July, topping June by 3.4%. ATA said that this index is dominated by contract freight rather than spot market freight.

“While July wasn’t a strong month, we see continued evidence that the truck freight market is likely turning a corner, albeit slowly,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Some of July’s small gain was likely due to strong import activity, especially at West Coast seaports. Decent retail sales and factory output growing slightly from a year earlier also helped truck tonnage last month.”