They were the first back-to-back contractions since March and April 2009.
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said the sequential decreases reflect a slowing economy. Growth in truck tonnage is likely to moderate in the months ahead as the economy decelerates, he said.
Nevertheless, Costello believes tonnage doesn’t have to grow very quickly at this point since industry capacity has declined so much.
“Due to supply tightness in the market, any tonnage growth feels significantly better for fleets than one might expect,” he said.
