ATA: Truck tonnage steady in May

The American Trucking Associations’ seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index ticked up 0.7 percent following a revised 2.7 percent increase the previous month.    Domestic truck tonnage was relatively steady in May, ticking up 0.7 percent following a revised 2.7 percent increase the previous month, according to the latest reading of the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index.
   The index equaled 113.8 for the month, up 7.8 compared with May 2017 but slowing slightly from the 9.9 percent year-over-year growth rate seen in April.
   The April growth followed two months of sequential declines, but represented the largest year-over-year increase in the index since October 2017.
   Through the first five months of the year, domestic truck volumes have grown 8 percent compared with the same 2017 period, more than double the annual growth rate of 3.8 percent seen last year.
   The association’s not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 118 in April, up 7.6 percent from the previous month’s reading of 109.7.
   “This continues to be one of the best, if not the best, truck freight markets we have ever seen,” ATA chief economist Bob Costello said in a statement. “May’s increases, both sequentially and year-over-year, not only exhibit a robust freight market, but what is likely to be a very strong GDP reading for the second quarter.
   Costello warned, however, that growth rates are likely to moderate in the next few months, “simply due to more difficult year-over-year comparisons, not from falling tonnage levels.”