William B. Cassidy | Jul 26, 2011 12:56PM EDT
For-hire truck tonnage rose 2.8 percent in June after falling a revised 2 percent in May, indicating that freight shipping pulled out of a two-month slump.
The gain put the American Trucking Associations seasonally adjusted tonnage index at its highest level since January, and 6.8 percent above June 2010.
The not-seasonally adjusted data, which reflect tonnage actually hauled by fleets, show an even bigger leap — a 5.3 percent increase from May to June.
“Motor carriers told us that freight was strong in June and that played out in the data as well,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said.
Truck tonnage grew 5.5 percent in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2010, Costello said, as U.S. manufacturers increased their output.
In the second half, “If manufacturing continues to grow stronger than GDP, I fully expect truck freight to do the same,” Costello said.
Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter at @wbcassidy_joc
