Feb. Truck Tonnage Rises 3.5%
February truck tonnage rose 3.5% from the same month last year, American Trucking Associations said in its monthly seasonally adjusted for-hire truck tonnage index.
The year-to-year increase left the index at a reading of 117.2, its highest reading in more than two years, ATA said. The February 2008 reading was flat compared with January, the previous month.
The not seasonally adjusted index fell 3.9% from January, to a reading of 109.1, ATA said late Wednesday.
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello called the February reading encouraging.
“The fact that truck tonnage did not lose any of January’s robust 2.4-percent gain is quite positive,” he said.
Costello continued to forecast a mild recession for the overall economy during the first half of this year, but noted that truck tonnage typically leads general economic activity. Truck tonnage rebounded in 2001, for example, just as the aggregate economy was slipping into a recession.
“Perhaps we are seeing a repeat of the last recovery,” Costello said. “But it is still too early to make that call, especially with energy prices at historic levels. There are just too many downside risks at the moment to say definitively that trucking is leading an economic recovery.”
ATA calculates the tonnage each month based on reports by its member trucking companies.
