US truck tonnage rose 1.2% in October

IRU member the American Trucking Associations (ATA) has been calculating the tonnage index based on surveys from its membership since the 1970s.

Trucking activity in the United States rose modestly in October, according to ATA's advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, the third increase since July.

ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said, "The slow, and choppy, climb off of the bottom continued in October. Since hitting a low in January of this year, tonnage is up a total of 3%, plus the index is up sequentially in three of the last four months. No doubt the freight market has improved - albeit slowly - over the course of the year."

In October, ATA's advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index equalled 114.6 compared with 113.3 in September. The index, which is based on 2015 as 100, equalled the reading from the same month last year.

The not seasonally adjusted index, which calculates raw changes in tonnage hauled, equalled 121.3 in October, 8.6% above September.

Both indices are dominated by contract freight, as opposed to traditional spot market freights.

Trucking serves as a barometer of the US 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 USD 940.8 billion, or 80.7% of total revenue earned by all transport modes.

This story was originally published by ATA.