Truck Tonnage Rises 5.9% in September
Truck tonnage rose 5.9% in September from a year ago, the 22nd straight month of year-over-year improvement, American Trucking Associations said Tuesday.
The increase follows a revised 4.9% year-to-year gain in August that was revised downward from an originally reported 5.2% increase.
Month-to-month, the September index rose 1.6% from August, ATA said in its monthly seasonally adjusted for-hire truck tonnage report.
That followed a revised 0.5% month-to-month decline in August from July that had originally been reported as a 0.2% downturn.
The seasonally adjusted index for September came in at a reading of 115.8, up from114 in August.
The not seasonally adjusted index, which measures actual tonnage, slipped 3.1% to a reading of 119.5.
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said he believes “the economy will skirt another recession because truck tonnage isn’t showing signs that we are in a recession. Tonnage is suggesting that we are in a weak growth period for the economy, but not a recession.”
He said the third-quarter average exhibited signs of small gains for the broader economy, not contraction. “In the third quarter, tonnage was up 0.4% from the second quarter. Prior to the two previous recessions, truck tonnage was plummeting, but not this time,” Costello said.
ATA calculates the tonnage each month based on reports by its member trucking companies.
