The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 122.3 in January 2014, which was 0.3% below the previous month (122.7).
ATA recently revised the seasonally adjusted index back five years as part of its annual revision. For all of 2013, tonnage was up 6.3%, slightly better than the 6.2% originally reported. In 2012, the index climbed 2.3%.
“Like most economic indicators, truck tonnage was negatively impacted by bad winter weather in January,” said Bob Costello, ATA chief economist. “The thing about truck freight is that it’s difficult to catch up. Drivers are governed by hours-of-service regulations, and trucks are limited to trailer lengths and total weights; thus it is nearly impossible to recoup the days lost due to bad storms.”
As a result, he said January will be a tough month to gauge.
“January wasn’t just one storm—it was several across a large part of the country. Therefore, I wouldn’t panic from the largest monthly drop in two years,” said Costello. “I’ve heard from many fleets that freight was good, in-between storms. The fundamentals for truck freight still look good.”
Trucking serves as a barometer of the US economy, representing 68.5% of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation, including manufactured and retail goods. Trucks hauled 9.4 billion tons of freight in 2012. Motor carriers collected $642.1 billion, or 80.7% of total revenue earned by all transport modes.
