U.S. Freight Tonnage Index

June 2010: Truck Freight Tonnage Up by 7% vs. May (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
U.S. Freight Tonnage, Not Seasonally Adjusted, from the American Trucking Associations
May 
2010
June
2010
Month-over-Month:
June 2010
vs. May 2010
June
2009
June
2010
Year-over-Year:
June 2010
vs. June 2009
108.3 115.9 + 6.9% 107.3 115.9 + 7.6%

June 2010: Truck Freight Tonnage Up by 7% vs. May (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

  • For-hire truck freight tonnage increased by 6.9% in June, compared to May, according to American Trucking Associations (ATA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, not seasonally adjusted (NSA), which is represented by the blue line on the above graph. 

  • This increase is slightly below expectations for the month of June, as reflected in ATA's Seasonally Adjusted Index (red line) which shows a month-over-month decline of 1.4%. 

  • Tonnage for the month bested June 2009 levels by 7.6%, following six positive year-over-year comparisons. According to the ATA, tonnage for 2010 to-date is up by 6.6% compared with the same period in 2009. ATA's not seasonally adjusted tonnage index, which represents the actual freight hauled in the month, appears to be recovering steadily. Compared to 2008 tonnage levels, however, the NSA index for the first half of 2010 underperformed the corresponding period by 6.5%.

  • On a year-over-year basis, spot market loads increased by 191% in May, nearly tripling the freight availability of May 2009. Contrasted with the 6.2% increase in overall tonnage, year-over-year, this trend may indicate that a higher proportion of freight shifted to the spot market since 2009. It may also indicate that capacity is becoming constrained in the marketplace overall.