ATA Truck Tonnage Index Increased 0.7% in January

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.7% in January after increasing 1% in December. In January, the index equaled 117.1 (2015=100) compared with 116.2 in December.

ATA recently revised the seasonally adjusted index back five years as part of its annual revision.

“Tonnage has increased nicely in the last couple of months,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “I suspect that some of the gain is attributable to capacity coming out of the network, especially those carriers that primarily operate in the spot market and/or bought expensive used equipment in the last couple of years. This would push more freight to contract carriers, which dominate this index.

“It could also be that freight bottomed and is coming up a little too. So, the gain is likely a little higher demand and a little less supply. Despite the increases in December and January, tonnage is still off 1.4% from its recent high in September,” Costello said.

Compared with January 2022, the SA index increased 1.5%, which was the seventeenth straight year-over-year gain. In December, the index was up 0.9% from a year earlier. In 2022, compared with the average in 2021, tonnage was up 3.5%.
more at: https://www.trucking.org/news-insights/ata-truck-tonnage-index-increased-07-january