ARLINGTON, Va. – American Trucking Associations’ seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose 0.1% in January after rising 0.5% in December.

In January, the index equaled 117.4, compared with 117.3 in December, ATA said.

ATA recently revised the seasonally adjusted index back five years as part of its annual revision.

“Over the last two months, the tonnage index has increased 0.6%, which is obviously good news,” said ATA chief economist Bob Costello.

“However, after our annual revision, it is clear that tonnage peaked in July 2019 and, even with the recent gains, is down 1.8% since then. Softness in manufacturing and elevated inventories continue to weigh on the truck freight tonnage.”

Compared with January 2019, the SA index rose 0.8%, which was preceded by a 3.1% year-over-year gain in December. In 2019, the index was 3.3% above 2018.

The not-seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 114.6 in January, 1.1% above the December level, ATA said.