Truck tonnage declines in August, reports ATA

Truck tonnage levels fell for the second straight month in October, according to data issued today by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

ATA reported that its October advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, came in at 111.9 (2015=100), following September’s 114.3 reading and was down 1.8% annually and is flat year-to-date through October. This followed respective 1.1% and 0.9% gains in July and August.   

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 119.2 reading, coming in 3.8% above September’s 114.8.

ATA officials said that both of these indices are dominated by contract freight, instead of spot market freight.

“October’s weakness shows the freight market remains very difficult, dropping the most of any single month since January 2024,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “As a result, the level of freight was the lowest since January 2025. Compared with a year earlier, tonnage experienced its largest decline in 2025.”