Truck tonnage levels remain on an uneven path, reports ATA

Truck tonnage levels remained on an uneven pattern in November, according to data issued late last month by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

The ATA’s advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index came in at 112.5 (2015=100), down from October’s 114.6 reading. August and September SA readings were at 115.6 and 113.2, respectively.

On an annual basis, the November SA reading was off 1%. This followed a flat reading in October, following a 0.9% September decrease and a 0.6% annual gain in August, which is only the second annual gain over the last 20 months, with the other one coming last May.

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, was at 106.9, falling 9.6% off of October’s 121.3, which was up 8.6% over September. ATA said that this index is dominated by contract freight rather than spot market freight.

“The frustratingly choppy freight environment continued in November,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Since hitting a low in January of this year, tonnage is up a total of 1.1%, but the path has been fraught with nice gains one month only to come back down the next. The good news is that the overall trend this year is up, albeit at a slow rate.”