Truck tonnage rose 2% in October from the same month last year, continuing the plodding pace of freight growth in recent months, American Trucking Associations reported.
The advanced seasonally adjusted index, which measures for-hire truck tonnage, was 1.9% higher in October than September to reverse sequential declines in August and September.
“It was good to see tonnage increase nicely in October after contracting a total of 1.6% in August and September” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “However, tonnage has been overall pretty flat this year.”
To illustrate that fact, he noted the October report, showing the index at 135.7, was just below the 135.8 reading in January.
“Like I’ve said over the last couple of months, I remain concerned about the high level of inventories throughout the supply chain,” Costello said in a statement, saying it wasn’t a good sign that inventories relative to sales rose in September. “This will have a negative impact on truck freight volumes over the next few months,” he said.”
The January mark, which was an all-time record for the closely watched index, also was a 6.7% increase above the weather-plagued January 2014 reading.
Since January, the year-over-year growth pace has slowed to the point that the increase was around 2% for three consecutive months. As a result, tonnage over 10 months of 2015 is 3% higher than last year.
ATA revised September’s tonnage to 133.1 from 134.2.
The ATA report also noted that not seasonally adjusted tonnage was 2.1% higher in October compared with September.
