Econintersect: According to the American Trucking Association, their Truck Tonnage Index decreased 1.3% in July 2011 after rising a revised 2.6% in June 2011.
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said:
We had heard that freight weakened from a robust June, that that was true. Tonnage has fallen in three of the last four months on a sequential basis.Despite a solid June, our truck tonnage index fits with an economy that is growing very slowly. The good news is that tonnage continues to increase on a year-over-year basis, but it is likely that the rate of growth will moderate in the second half of the year.
Compared with July 2010, SA tonnage was up 3.9%. In June, the tonnage index was 6.5% above a year earlier. Econintersect uses transport indices to measure the economy – and believes their movements correlate to economic activity. Hat tip to Calculated Risk for the graph below.
source: ATA via PRNewswire, Calculated Risk