The American Trucking Associations' (ATA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index dropped 0.8% in August after an increase of 0.3% in July. The trade group says the drop "points to softness in the trucking industry."
"August 2006 marked the beginning of the current slowdown for our industry," says ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. "The slight year-over-year gain this August is primarily due to easier comparisons and is not indicative of a turnaround for the economy and trucking."
Costello says truck freight movement is expected to be lackluster this fall.
"Economic growth just isn’t strong enough to significantly boost truck tonnage anytime soon. We recently reduced our economic forecasts and don’t believe tonnage will consistently grow at its historical average over the last 10 years of 2.5% until the second half of 2008."
