May truck tonnage sees slight decline, reports ATA

Truck tonnage readings trended down, for the month of May, according to data issued this week by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

The ATA’s advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index for May—at 113.7 (2015=100)—was off 0.7%, following a 12.2% April decline and a 5.1% March decline.

On an annual basis, May’s SA tonnage reading rose 3.7%, which comes on the heels of 6.7% annual gain in April and a 9.5% decline in March. ATA officials pointed out that its For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index “is dominated by contract freight as opposed to spot market freight.”

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 113.8 in May, trailing April by 0.2%.

“Tonnage, despite falling slightly over the last two months, remains well above the lows of last year,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello in a statement. “This is no small deal considering that truck tonnage fell significantly less than many other indicators during the depths of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. One freight segment that is helping tonnage is gasoline as demand for travel, both commuting and vacation related, picks up,” he said. I’m also expecting retail freight to remain robust as inventories are at historic lows. As retail stocks are rebuilt, it will boost freight. As has been the case for some time, trucking’s biggest challenges are not on the demand side, but on the supply side, including difficulty finding qualified drivers.”