American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 1.2% in February after increasing 0.6% in January. In February, the index equaled 118.4 (2015=100) compared with 117 in January. “Tonnage has increased sequentially for the last three months totaling 2.9 percent,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “As a result, the index is just 0.3 percent below the recent high in September. The fact that our index is growing sequentially and on a year-over-year basis demonstrates that contract freight continues to hold up at high levels. “Looking ahead, we continue to see evidence the inventory cycle is improving, which means bloated stocks will stop being a headwind and eventually help truck freight volumes,” Costello said. “Increased infrastructure spending will also boost volumes heading into the summer months. However, we expect to see continued freight softness related to lower home construction and slowing factory output.” Compared with February 2022, the SA index increased 2.3%, which was the eighteenth straight year-over-year gain, but the largest since October. In January, the index was up 1.4% from a year earlier. In 2022, compared with the average in 2021, tonnage was up 3.5%.

The American Trucking Associations applauded congressional leaders for introducing legislation to repeal the antiquated federal excise tax on the purchase of new trucks and trailers. “First implemented over a century ago to help finance America’s effort in World War I, the FET has become the largest excise tax on any product, adding $24,000 to the cost of each new clean-diesel tractor-trailer,” said American Trucking Associations President & CEO Chris Spear. “Keeping this antiquated tax on the books imposes an enormous hardship, particularly for the small fleets, family businesses, and independent truckers who make up the overwhelming majority of trucking. Removing this burden will allow motor carriers to replace their trucks with modern, safer, and cleaner equipment, which will in turn provide a boost to manufacturing jobs. Our industry is grateful to Reps. LaMalfa, Pappas, LaHood, Carbajal, and Miller for their leadership on this issue to improve highway safety, reduce emissions, and strengthen our economy.” The FET began in 1917 to help finance World War I. Today, it is the highest percentage federal excise tax – at 12 percent – levied on any product, amounting to a $6 billion annual burden on the trucking industry.

It takes plenty of space to park a wide-body cargo jet, and UPS’s facility at Kansas City International Airport is getting a lot more of it. The facility, known as an air gateway, is being renovated and expanded. The most visible part of the work is expanding the ramp from two aircraft parking spots to five. The new ramp will be 534,000 square feet, more than nine football fields in size. In addition to the new ramp, UPS also will install new sorting equipment at the gateway, more than tripling package handling capacity to 5,000 packages per hour. Construction in Kansas City is planned to begin in late October with completion in the fall of 2021.