Dan Lang
| Staff ReporterAnalyst: Truck Traffic to Rise Through 2005
An economic slowdown will hurt trucking this year, but growth will make truck traffic rise at an annual rate of 3% to 3.5% a year between 2002 and 2005, according to one of the industry’s leading economic analysts.
“Next year, somewhat more favorable year-over-year comparisons coupled with a still expanding U.S. economy will serve to lift truck traffic 2% to 2.5%,” he said.
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Peter Toja, president of Economic Planning Associates, said the growth will come from “further expansion of the [United States] economy, rapid growth in Nafta trade and annual increases in total merchandise trade with the rest of the world.”
However, Toja pronounced that the short-term outlook for truck traffic is “relatively flat” compared with 1999’s performance.