ATA Truck Tonnage Falls in February

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index dropped 4.5% to 110 in February after rising 1.8% to 115.2 in January. The drop was largely due to severe winter weather that impacted much of the country during the month.

“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,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.

Compared with February 2020, the SA index fell 5.9%, which was preceded by a 1.6% year-over-year decline in January. In 2020, the index was 4% below the 2019 average.

The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 99.4 in February, 7.9% below the January level (107.9).

ATA’s For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index is dominated by contract freight as opposed to spot market freight.