Truck tonnage sees October gains, reports ATA

October truck tonnage levels headed in the right direction, after declining in September, according to data issued today by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

The ATA’s advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index came in at 114.6 (2015=100), for a 1.2% gain, following a 1.2% decrease, to 113.2 in September. Which followed a 1.7% (downwardly revised from an original reading of 1.8%) off of August’s 115.6 reading and a 2.1% July gain.

On an annual basis, the October SA reading was flat, following a 0.9% September decrease and a 0.6% annual gain in August, which is only the second annual gain over the last 19 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 121.3 in October, marking an 8.6% gain over September. ATA said that this index is dominated by contract freight rather than spot market freight.

“The slow, and choppy, climb off of the bottom continued in October,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Since hitting a low in January of this year, tonnage is up a total of 3%, plus the index is up sequentially in three of the last four months. No doubt the freight market has improved—albeit slowly – over the course of the year.”