Econintersect: The American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) trucking index was unchanged in September 2014 following a 1.6% increased in August 2014. From ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello:
September data was a mixed bag, with retail sales falling while factory output increased nicely. As a result, I’m not too surprised that truck tonnage split both of those readings and remained unchanged.
During the third quarter, truck tonnage jumped 2.4% from the second quarter and surged 4% from the same period last year. The third quarter average was the highest on record.
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Compared with September 2013, seasonally adjusted tonnage increased 3.7%.
Econintersect tries to validate data across data sources. It appears this month that jobs growth says the trucking industry increased 0.2% month-over-month (red line). Please note using BLS employment data in real time is risky, as their data is normally backward adjusted significantly.
This data series is not transparent and therefore cannot be relied on. Please note that the ATA does not release an unadjusted data series (although they report the unadjusted value each month – but do not report revisions to this data) where Econintersect can make an independent evaluation. The data is apparently subject to significant backward revision. Not all trucking companies are members of the ATA, and therefore it is unknown if this data is a representative sampling of the trucking industry.
source: ATA