ATA: Tonnage Sets Another Record, up 6.6% Year-over-Year
Truck tonnage set still another record in January, rising 6.6% on a year-over-year basis from the weather-affected month of 2014, American Trucking Associations reported.
The preliminary seasonally adjusted index stood at 135.7 in January, an improvement of 1.2% from December, which was the prior record month. January’s year-over-year gain was the strongest since December 2013.
Tonnage has set a record for three consecutive months and has risen year-over-year for 12 straight months. ATA also said its December tonnage was revised up by 0.1%, which made the result slightly better than November of last year.
“Truck tonnage continued to improve in January, marking the fourth straight [sequential] gain totaling 3.5%,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “Last year was slightly better for truck tonnage than we originally thought, and I am expecting that momentum to continue in 2015.”
As part of its annual revision process, ATA pegged tonnage growth for 2014 at 3.7% compared with 3.4% before the revision was made.
The tonnage improvement announced by the trade federation followed a series of recent economic reports that were favorable on a year-over-year basis.
Among those reports was a 6% increase in factory output from the Federal Reserve, compared with the year earlier. Housing starts also improved on that basis.
.@ATAEconBob says ATA's Tonnage Index hit an all-time high in January. Good news for #trucking http://t.co/g9cjzl3psQ pic.twitter.com/j5UftNyXHV — American Trucking (@TRUCKINGdotORG) February 24, 2015
