ATA Truck Tonnage Posts Large Gain
Posted on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 @ 08:09 AM
The American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index:
- Jumped 6.8 percent in December.
- Rose 0.3 percent in November 2011
- Continued to rise into the next month.
The latest gain put the SA index at 124.5 in December. The index is up from the November level of 116.6. For all of 2011, tonnage rose 5.9 percent; the largest gain in 13 years. Tonnage for December was 10.5 percent higher than it was in 2010. This is the largest year-over-year gain since 1998.
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said, “While I’m not surprised that tonnage increased in December, I am surprised at the magnitude of the gain.” He continued, “Not only did truck tonnage increase due to solid manufacturing output in December, but also from some likely inventory restocking. Inventories, especially at the retail level, are exceedingly lean, and I suspect that tonnage was higher than expected as the supply chain did some restocking during the month.”
The American Trucking Associations is the principal trade association for trucking. The ATA has 50 affiliated trucking associations, industry-related conferences, and councils. Every month, the association reports tonnage by asking its members how much tonnage was hauled. The indexes are calculated based on those responses.
The indexes are important because trucking serves as a gauge of the U.S. economy. The industry represents 67.2 percent of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation. In 2010, 9 billion tons of freight was carried by trucks.
The tonnage reports may be a minor announcement in the trucking world, but the numbers can serve as a representation of our country’s economy.