American Trucking Associations reports February decline in trucking tonnage

Arlington, Virginia-based American Trucking Associations (ATA) reports that its seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 4.5 percent in February after rising 1.8 percent in January.

“February’s drop was exacerbated, perhaps completely caused, by the severe winter weather that impacted much of the country during that month,” says ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Many other economic indicators were also soft in February due to the bad storms, but I continue to expect a nice climb up for the economy and truck freight as economic stimulus checks are spent and more people are vaccinated.”

The association reports that the index is also 5.9 percent below levels reported in February 2020, and that was preceded by a 1.6 percent year-over-year decline in January, ATA reports in a news release. In 2020, the index was 4 percent below the 2019 average.

ATA says the not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 99.4 percent in February, which is 7.9 percent below the January level. ATA says trucking serves as a barometer of the U.S. economy, representing 72.5 percent of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation, including manufactured and retail goods. Trucks hauled 11.84 billion tons of freight in 2019. Motor carriers collected $791.7 billion, or 80.4 percent of total revenue earned by all transport modes.