by Calculated Risk on 8/29/2012 04:44:00 PM

From ATA: ATA Truck Tonnage was Unchanged in July

The American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index was unchanged in July after increasing 1.1% in June. (June’s gain was slightly smaller than the 1.2% increase ATA reported on July 25.) In July, the SA index stayed at 118.8 (2000=100). Compared with July 2011, the SA index was 4.1% higher, which was the largest year-over-year gain since February 2012. Year-to-date, compared with the same period last year, tonnage was up 3.7%.
...
“July’s reading reflects an economy that has lost some steam, but hasn’t stalled,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “Certainly there has been some better economic news recently, but I continue to believe we will see some deceleration in tonnage during the second half of the year, if for nothing else but very tough comparisons on a robust August through December period in 2011.” ... Costello kept his tonnage outlook for 2012 to the 3% to 3.5% range as reported last month.

Note from ATA:

Trucking serves as a barometer of the U.S. economy, representing 67% of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation, including manufactured and retail goods. Trucks hauled 9.2 billion tons of freight in 2011. Motor carriers collected $603.9 billion, or 80.9% of total revenue earned by all transport modes.

Click on graph for larger image.

Here is a long term graph that shows ATA's For-Hire Truck Tonnage index.

The dashed line is the current level of the index. The index is above the pre-recession level and up 3.7% year-over-year - but has been moving mostly sideways in 2012.