ATA Truck Tonnage Index Falls 0.3% in October
Nov 28, 2007 11:41 AM
The American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 0.3 percent in October, after rising 1.5 percent in September. The not seasonally adjusted index gained 14 percent from September to 122.1.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the tonnage index slipped to 110.9 (2000 = 100) in October. Tonnage was also down 1.5 percent from a year earlier. Year-to-date, the tonnage index was 2.2 percent lower than during the same period in 2006. With only two months of data remaining for the year, the 2007 decrease could be the largest annual drop since a 5.2 percent reduction in 2000. The index fell 1.7 percent in 2006.
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said the October tonnage reading illustrates continued softness in truck tonnage. Although the weak freight environment is broad based, the housing sector was a significant contributor to the decline and continues to affect flatbed carriers.
Provided the U.S. economy doesn’t slip into a recession, Costello expects freight levels will remain soft until the second half of 2008. “We anticipate truck freight volumes to be lackluster for the next couple of quarters,” Costello said. “There is nothing on the horizon that points to an acceleration in truck freight.”
Trucking serves as a barometer of the U.S. economy because it represents nearly 70 percent of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation, including manufactured and retail goods.
Trucks hauled 10.7 billion tons of freight in 2006. Motor carriers collected $645.6 billion, or 83.8 percent of total revenue earned by all transport modes.
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