American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 3.6% in May after decreasing 1% in April.
In May, the index equaled 115.9 (2015=100) compared with 111.9 in April.
“May was the first month since February 2023 that tonnage increased both sequentially and from a year earlier,” Bob Costello, ATA’s chief economist, said in a news release. “While there was clearly an increase in freight before the Memorial Day holiday, it is still too early to say whether this is the start of a long-awaited recovery in the truck freight market.”
Compared with May 2023, the index rose 1.5%, the first year-over-year gain in 15 months. In April, the index was down 1.3% from a year earlier, ATA reported.
The not-seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 120.4 in May, 7.1% above April. ATA’s For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index is dominated by contract freight as opposed to spot market freight.
In calculating the index, 100 represents 2015.
Trucking serves as a barometer of the U.S. 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 $940.8 billion, or 80.7% of total revenue earned by all transport modes.
ATA calculates the tonnage index based on surveys from its membership and has been doing so since the 1970s.