Econintersect: The American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) trucking index increased 1.1% following an revised decline of 2.8% in February. From ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello:
While tonnage did not fully recoup the loss from February, it increased nicely in March. I’d say that tonnage was one of the better indicators for the month, which is a positive sign for the broader economy. The next couple of months will be telling for truck freight volumes as we enter the spring freight season.
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Compared with one year ago, seasonally adjusted tonnage increased 5.0%.
Econintersect tries to validate data across data sources. It appears this month that jobs growth says the trucking industry decreased 0.5% 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
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