INDIANAPOLIS — Bob Costello isn’t sure that a recession — a downturn that could impact freight and trucking companies across North America — is coming, or when, but the economist senses something is amiss.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. trucking industry is enjoying its best business environment since deregulation in 1980, and the good times will continue in the near term unless trade disputes hinder economic growth, American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello said.

Truck tonnage in February was up nearly 6% compared with February 2017, according to American Trucking Associations’ monthly for-hire truck tonnage index. Tonnage is up 7.1% year-to-date, compared with the same two months in 2017.

Truck tonnage rose 8.8% in January on a year-over-year basis, according to American Trucking Associations’ monthly for-hire truck tonnage index.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The freight market is as strong as it has been since deregulation in the 1980s, according to American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello.

Truck tonnage surged 7.6% year-over-year in November after a 10.5% increase in October, according to American Trucking Associations.

Truck tonnage took a healthy 8.2% step up in August, perhaps driven by hurricane preparation work and port shipping, American Trucking Associations said Sept. 19.

U.S. trucks moved more than 70% of the nation’s freight last year, and the companies that owned those vehicles employed 7.4 million people, according to a new publication from American Trucking Associations.

American Trucking Associations predicts that freight volumes will grow 2.8% this year and then 3.4% per year through 2023,

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After the trucking industry endured what he termed “a freight recession” last year, American Trucking Associations' chief economist, Bob Costello, predicts a rosier 2017.