ATA Truck Tonnage Continues to Show Signs of Turnaround

ATA says truck tonnage in March increased 0.3% sequentially and 3% year over year. (Aziz Shamuratov/Getty Images)

Freight tonnage posted its largest year-over-year gain in more than three years in March while also delivering the best quarterly result in almost a decade, American Trucking Associations reported April 21.

The ATA For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 0.3% sequentially to 117 from 116.6. The results also marked a 3% increase from 2025.

“While March wasn’t particularly strong sequentially, it was the largest year-over-year increase since October 2022,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “The first quarter of 2026 was also the best performance since the third quarter of 2017 when considering both sequential and year-over-year results.” More near term, Q1 freight tonnage was up 2.1% compared with Q1 2025, ATA said.

The monthly index is calculated based on feedback from carriers hauling contract freight. In calculating the index, 100 represents 2015.

Image

(American Trucking Associations)

Cass Freight Index

The Cass Freight Index, by contrast, reported shipments decreased 4.5% year over year to 1.007 from 1.054. However, the index also showed a sequential increase of 3% from 0.978. That result followed a month-to-month gain of 10.4% in February.

One industry observer noted the disparate annual results between the two.

Image

Phares 

“I was surprised to see this year-over-year jump in freight tonnage, both in February and then in March, from ATA,” said Jonathan Phares, assistant professor of supply chain management at Iowa State University, while acknowledging the sequential gain both posted. “We typically see some agreement in the movement between the ATA freight tonnage index versus the Cass freight shipments index.”

He stressed, however, that the freight market over the past year has been contending with a raft of challenges, including President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, pricing pressures among shippers, low consumer confidence, inflation and geopolitical issues. More recently, uncertainty surrounding the Iran war and high fuel prices have chilled the market.

“We’re definitely facing headwinds from fuel prices being up because of the conflict in the Middle East, which certainly is increasing the cost of transportation, but then also … increasing the cost of production for different things that would be hauled,” Phares said. “It’s an interesting mixed bag of what’s going on that’s very different than it was this time last year.”

Logistics Managers' Index

The Logistics Managers’ Index increased 4.2 points sequentially to 65.7 in March. This marked the fastest level of expansion since May 2022 and was driven by continued expansion in the freight market, the report said. The LMI also found transportation prices jumped during the month as transportation capacity continued to contract.

Image

Dhawan 

“The biggest issue is the price of diesel when it comes to transportation,” said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University. “That really went up in the last month and a half since the Iran issue. It’s not going to turn around that quickly, even if the [Strait of] Hormuz opens up.”

RELATED: Shipping Through Hormuz Remains Largely Frozen

Dhawan warned that increased energy costs will affect ocean and air shipments as well, and he expects the impact to show up in food and transportation costs in the next few months. He also has seen fuel surcharges rise as a result, a trend he expects to continue. In fact, he sees high fuel costs as a more serious issue for motor carriers than tariffs.

“Tariffs were an irritant,” Dhawan said. “But we know how to deal with it. This is a real problem. If we don’t have jet fuel or the diesel or the other stuff, then shortages — which are happening in Asia — will impact the supply chain.”