ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. for-hire truck tonnage dropped 6.3% in October, according to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), and was down 8.7% year-over-year.

The sharp drop came after a 5.7% increase in September.

“While there are indications that the economy is losing momentum, I believe October’s tonnage softness was more of a seasonal issue during a pandemic than anything else,” said ATA chief economist Bob Costello.

“Typical seasonality is off this year and it was a reason why October was down so much. Not seasonally adjusted tonnage was down a fraction as much as normal over the last five years during September, leading to a big seasonally adjusted gain. However, that means October’s not seasonally adjusted tonnage grew less than half as much as it typically does, leading to a big drop in the seasonally adjusted figure. There are plenty of carriers still saying that tonnage, retail tonnage in particular, is good.”