Truck Tonnage Rises in May
Truck tonnage rose 4.8% year-over-year in May, according to the monthly American Trucking Associations Tonnage Index, the largest gain since November 2016, echoing sentiments from analysts and trucking executives that the freight market has tightened in recent weeks as people spend more time outdoors.
On a sequential basis, the seasonally adjusted index grew 6.5% in May, reversing three consecutive monthly declines. The preliminary seasonally adjusted index was 144.1 in May, up from 135.3 in April. The all-time high in February 2016 was 142.7. The index uses a base level of 100 for freight activity in the year 2000.
“After three straight declines totaling 2.6%, truck tonnage snapped back in May,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “One month does not make a trend, but the nice gain last month fits more with the anecdotal reports I’ve been hearing from fleets, at least more so than three straight months of decreases. Despite the robust jump in May, I still expect moderate growth going forward as key sectors of the economy continue to improve slowly.”
The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets, was 145.3 in May, which was 8.5% higher than the April level.
