July truck tonnage sees marginal gains, reports ATA

While July saw a slight uptick, truck tonnage levels remain largely down, according to data issued by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) today.

The July reading of the ATA’s advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index came in at 113.7 (2015=100), a 0.6% gain on the heels of a 0.7% June decline. This reading was down 0.1% annually and on a year-to-date basis, ATA said tonnage is flat.

The ATA’s not seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage 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, registered a 116.8 July reading, topping June’s 114.6 by 1.9%.

“July truck tonnage increased sequentially, but did not erase the 0.7% decline in June,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Since March, truck tonnage has been in a tight range. The good news is truck freight volumes haven’t fallen much over that period, but we are not seeing many increases either. In July, there were mixed drivers of truck tonnage with housing starts and retail sales up, while manufacturing output was flat to down depending on the metric.”