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“The slow, and choppy, climb off of the bottom continued in October,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Since hitting a low in January of this year, tonnage is up a total of 3%, plus the index is up sequentially in three of the last four months. No doubt the freight market has improved – albeit slowly – over the course of the year.” In October, the ATA advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index equaled 114.6 compared with 113.3 in September. The index, which is based on 2015 as 100, equaled the reading from the same month last year. The not seasonally adjusted index, which calculates raw changes in tonnage hauled equaled 121.3 in October, 8.6% above September. The seasonally adjusted increase follows a decline in September, which was revised up slightly from the October 22 press release.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 1% in December after rising 0.5% in November. In December, the index equaled 114.7 (2015=100) compared with 113.5 in November. “December’s gain was the fifth straight totaling 4.4%,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “In December, tonnage reached the highest level since March, but it was still 2.7% below the pre-pandemic high. This is likely due to the fact ATA’s data is dominated by contract freight. Contractor truckload carriers operated fewer trucks in 2021 compared with 2020 and it is difficult to haul significantly more tonnage with fewer trucks. But overall, we have seen a nice trend up that is reflective of a still growing goods-economy.” November’s reading was revised down from our December 21 press release.