December Truck Tonnage Grows 4.2%
Truck tonnage rose 4.2% in December from a year ago to its highest level in more than two years, American Trucking Associations said Tuesday.
The upturn left the index at a reading of 111.6, ATA said in its monthly seasonally adjusted for-hire truck tonnage report. The index uses the year 2000 as its baseline reading of 100. It was the highest level since September 2008.
December’s index gained 2.2% from November, and ATA revised November’s monthly loss to 0.6%, from a previously reported 0.1%.
For all of 2010, tonnage increased 5.7% compared with the previous year. It had dropped 8.7% in 2009.
The reported increase matches what carriers are reporting about freight volumes, ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said.
“Fleets continue to tell me that freight volumes are very choppy – up one week, but down the next,” he said in a statement.
But the December report is still positive for the industry and the economy, he added. “I continue to expect truck freight tonnage to grow modestly during the first half of 2011 and accelerate in the later half of the year into 2012.”
ATA calculates the tonnage each month based on reports by its member trucking companies.
