ATA: Seasonally adjusted truck tonnage index down 3.1% in February

The index increased 3% compared to February of 2014, according to the American Trucking Association.    Domestic truck tonnage decreased 3.1 percent in February, following a revised gain of 1.3 percent during the previous month, according to the American Trucking Association’s advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index. ATA had previously reported a 1.2 percent increase in the index for the month of January.
   The seasonally adjusted index equaled 131.6 in February, the lowest level since September 2014. Compared with February 2014, the index increased 3 percent, but this was the smallest year-over-year gain since June of last year and below the 2014 annual increase of 3.7 percent.
   The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, was down 6.4 percent from January.
   “The February drop in truck tonnage was not a surprise,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello in a statement from the association. “Retail sales, manufacturing output and housing starts were all off during the month, so the tonnage decline fits with those indicators. The surprise would have been had tonnage increased with all of those sectors falling.”
   Costello added that winter weather during February had a negative impact on truck tonnage as well as industries that drive tonnage, like retail, manufacturing and housing starts.