For the first seven months of 2003, the truck tonnage index was 3.7% higher compared to the same time period in 2002.
ATA chief economist Bob Costello said that many manufacturing plants shut down in the summer for a week or two to retool the assembly lines, and that often has a negative impact on truck freight volumes.
“July’s increase is further evidence that the trucking industry is on a recovery path and I expect freight volumes to continue to improve as the economy does,” Costello said.
According to ATA, trucks hauled 8.9 billion tons of freight in 2002, or 67.9% of all tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation. Motor carriers collected $585 billion dollars, which is 87% of total revenue earned by all transport modes.
