The American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 1.5% in April, after rising 0.6% the previous month.
In April 2014, the index equaled 129.1 (2000=100) versus 127.2 in March. The all-time high was in November 2013 (131.0). Compared with April 2013, the SA index increased 4.8%, which is the largest year-over-year gain of 2014. Year-to-date, compared with the same period last year, tonnage is up 2.9%.
The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 131.5 in April, which was 1.6% above the previous month (129.4).
“April was the third straight gain in tonnage totaling 4%,” says ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “I’m pleased that tonnage has been making solid progress after falling a total of 5.2% in December (2013) and January,” he said. “And April’s nice gain was better than the contraction in industrial production and the lackluster retail sales during the same month.”
Tonnage is still off 1.4% from the all-time high in November 2013.