Truck Tonnage Growth Slows to 3% in February
Truck tonnage growth slowed in February to a 3% pace as a blend of weaker economic results and winter weather held down the pace of the freight volume increase.
American Trucking Associations said the slowest year-over-year growth pace since June left the advanced seasonally adjusted tonnage index at 131.6.
Compared with January, tonnage slipped 3.1% from that month's all-time high of 135.8. The decline pushed the index number to the lowest level since September, the trade association said in a statement.
“The February drop in truck tonnage was not a surprise,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “Retail sales, manufacturing output and housing starts were all off during the month, so the tonnage decline fits with those indicators. The surprise would have been had tonnage increased with all of those sectors falling.”
Severe weather in the East and Midwest hurt both tonnage and the industries whose activity fell off during the quarter, the ATA official said.
The sluggish February growth also was illustrated with other statistical measures. The pace lagged the weather-affected 6.7% year-over-year increase in January and last year’s full-year growth trajectory of 3.7%.
The trade association also provided a not seasonally adjusted index based on the actual amount of freight hauled.
That index was 118.9 last month, or 6.4% below the January reading. Compared with February 2014, the index rose 2.9% on that basis.
