September truck tonnage levels took a step back, falling after two months of growth, according to data issued today by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).
The ATA’s advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index came in at 113.2 (2015=100), down 1.2%, following a 1.7% (downwardly revised from an original reading of 1.8%) off of August’s 115.6 reading and a 2.1% July gain. On an annual basis, the September SA reading was down 0.9% after a 0.6% annual gain in August, which is only the second annual gain over the last 19 months, with the other one coming last May.
The ATA’s not seasonally-adjusted (NSA) index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment and the metric ATA says fleets should benchmark their levels with, came in at 111.6 in September, trailing August by 6.4%. August topped July by 2.2%. ATA said that this index is dominated by contract freight rather than spot market freight.
“After increasing a total of 2.1% in July and August, tonnage fell by that amount in September,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Freight has been very choppy this year, but despite the latest drop, tonnage is up 1.8% since hitting a low in January. No doubt, the climb up has been slow and difficult as manufacturing activity remains flat, but the trend is up, not down.”
