American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 1.6% in June after increasing 3% in May.
In June, the index equaled 113.5 (2015=100) compared with 115.3 in May, ATA reported.
“While giving back some of the gain from May, it appears that truck freight tonnage is slowly going in the right direction since hitting a recent low in January,” Bob Costello, ATA chief economist, said in a news release. “Despite June’s decline, the second quarter average was 0.2% above the first quarter and only 0.2% below the second quarter in 2023, which are good signs that truck freight might be finally turning the corner.”
Compared with June 2023, the index decreased 0.4%. In May, the index was up 1% from a year earlier, which was the first year-over-year gain since February 2023.
The not-seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 113.1 in June, 5.5% below May. ATA’s For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index is dominated by contract freight as opposed to spot market freight.
In calculating the index, 100 represents 2015.
Trucking serves as a barometer of the U.S. economy, representing 72.6% of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation, including manufactured and retail goods. Trucks hauled 11.46 billion tons of freight in 2022. Motor carriers collected $940.8 billion, or 80.7% of total revenue earned by all transport modes.