January truck tonnage sees gains, reports American Trucking Associations

Truck tonnage levels finished started 2023 where 2022 left off—with modest growth—according to data recently issued by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

The ATA’s advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, for January, at 117.1 (2015=100), saw a 0.7% gain, from December to January, following a 1% December gain, to 116.2, over November.

On an annual basis, the January 2022 SA reading headed up 1.5%, marking the 17th consecutive annual gain, topping December’s 0.9% annual SA gain, with calendar year 2022 up 3.5% annually.

The ATA’s not seasonally-adjusted (NSA) index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment and the metric ATA says fleets should benchmark their levels with, came in at 112.7 in January (2015=100), down 0.4% compared to December’s 113.2.

“Tonnage has increased nicely in the last couple of months,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello in a statement. “I suspect that some of the gain is attributable to capacity coming out of the network, especially those carriers that primarily operate in the spot market and/or bought expensive used equipment in the last couple of years. This would push more freight to contract carriers, which dominate this index. It could also be that freight bottomed and is coming up a little too. So, the gain is likely a little higher demand and a little less supply. Despite the increases in December and January, tonnage is still off 1.4% from its recent high in September.”