For all of 2022, for-hire truck tonnage was up 3.4%, which was the best annual gain since 2018, according to the American Trucking Associations.
ATA’s advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.4% in December 2022 after decreasing 2.5% in November. In December, the index equaled 115.2 versus 114.8 in November.
Despite weakening in the second half, 2022 overall was a solid year for truck freight tonnage, aid ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello in a press release.
“Despite the small gain in December, for-hire truck tonnage clearly decelerated during the final quarter in 2022,” Costello said. “In fact, tonnage outperformed some other key metrics that drive truck freight, like housing starts and factory output during the final month of the year. This is probably because contract truckload freight is still outperforming the spot market and less-than-truckload freight after underperforming both of those sectors in 2021.”
Compared with December 2021, the SA index increased 0.3%, which was the sixteenth straight year-over-year gain, but the smallest over that period. In November, the index was up 0.8% from a year earlier.