Winter weather pushed down February freight tonnage: ATA

by Today's Trucking

U.S. for-hire truck tonnage fell 4.5% in February, and was down 5.9% year-over-year, according to the latest data from the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

“February’s drop was exacerbated, perhaps completely caused, by the severe winter weather that impacted much of the country during the month,” said ATA chief economist Bob Costello.

“Many other economic indicators were also soft in February due to the bad storms, but I continue to expect a nice climb up for the economy and truck freight as economic stimulus checks are spent and more people are vaccinated.”

In 2020, the truck tonnage index is 4% below the 2019 average, ATA reports.

(Source: ATA)


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  • The lower rates 18 months ago and again 8 to10 months ago pushed many small transportation businesses to close. Many owner ops in Ontario can not get affordable insurance. We have several former owner ops living in the homeless shelters after getting sick and injuried. The On. gov. N E E D S to look at minimum truck pay by the hour as a trade and development of a gov. insurance options for smaller fleets under 20 trucks and for greenhouses and farmers to haul their own products. A number of people said 10 months ago that too many trucks and container ship was being scrapped.