Truck tonnage dipped 1.1% in June from the previous month, but rose from year-ago levels, continuing a streak dating back more than two years.
“Tonnage continues to show resilience as it posted the 26th year-over-year increase despite falling for the second straight month sequentially,” said Bob Costello, chief economist of American Trucking Associations. “The year-over-year gain was the smallest over the past two years, but the level of freight remains quite high. Tonnage is outperforming other trucking metrics as heavy freight sectors, like tank truck, are witnessing better freight levels than sectors like dry van, which has a lower average weight per load.”
ATA said its advanced seasonally adjusted for-hire truck tonnage index stood at 115.2 for June, down from 116.5 in May. It was up 1.5% from a year ago, the smallest year-over-year gain since April 2017.
The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 117.6 in June, 3.3% below May level.
ATA said in calculating the index, a reading of 100 represents 2015.
