...and then there's the decrease in trucking freight tonnage...
...Trucking serves as a barometer of the U.S. economy, representing nearly 69 percent of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation...
It'll be interesting to see what the American Trucking Association's (ATA) 27 September 2009 release of seasonally adjusted (SA) for-hire truck tonnage data for August 2009 will reveal...
ATA SA tonnage for July 2009 reported 27 August 2009:
"Truck tonnage increased 2.1% in July, according to the American Trucking Associations' (ATA) most recent figures.
Compared to July 2008, tonnage fell 10.4%. ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello believes truck tonnage will be "choppy" in the months ahead.
He remains hopeful that tonnage levels have hit bottom, but "I just don't see anything on the economic horizon that suggests freight tonnage is about to rise significantly or consistently."
http://www.moderntiredealer.com/Cha...y/2009/08/Truck-tonnage-rose-2-1-in-July.aspx
ATA SA tonnage for June 2009, reported 28 July 2009:
"Freight volumes may finally be hitting bottom, according to recent tonnage data collected by the
American Trucking Assns. (ATA), but indications are that freight levels may stay depressed for some time to come. ... for-hire tonnage was off 13.6% in June compared with the same month last year, surpassing May’s 11% year-over-year drop. June’s numbers also represented the largest year-over-year contraction to date in the current cycle, exceeding the 13.2% drop in April, ATA noted."
http://fleetowner.com/management/news/freight-volumes-ata-data-0728/
ATA SA tonnage for May 2009, reported 26 June 2009:
"The American Trucking Associations’ advance seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index rose for the first time since February 2009, gaining 3.2% in May 2009. May’s increase, which raised the SA index to 102.3, wasn’t large enough to offset the March through April cumulative reduction of 6.7%. ...
Compared with May 2008, tonnage contracted 11%, which was the best year-over-year result in three months. Despite the improvement from April’s 13.2% plunge, May’s decrease is still historically large."
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1712400/ata_truck_tonnage_index_increased_32_percent_in_may/
ATA SA tonnage for April 2009 reported 27 May 2009:
"Compared with April 2008, tonnage contracted 13.2%, which was the worst year-over-year decrease of the current cycle and the largest drop in thirteen years, said Bob Costello, ATA chief economist."
http://fleetowner.com/management/truck-freight-transportation-tonnage-0527/
ATA SA tonnage for March 2009 reported 28 April 2009:
"A 4.5% decrease this March in the for-hire truck index compiled by the
American Trucking Assns. (ATA) isn't much of a surprise to major carriers-- merely a reflection of their own data that freight volumes remain extremely sluggish through the first three months of this year.
"Weak freight demand, excess tractor and trailer capacity in the truckload industry, and significant rate pressure from customers and freight brokers led to an approximately 8.2% reduction in our average freight revenue per tractor per week," said David Parker, chairman, president & CEO of Covenant Transportation in its first-quarter earnings report. "Also, the economy in the southeastern U.S. continues to be even more depressed than the overall U.S. economy."
"Although [this period] is traditionally the slowest from a seasonal perspective, January and February 2009 financial results were heavily impacted by major declines in freight volumes between the U.S. and Mexico and Canada," noted Steve Russell, chairman & CEO of Celadon Group in the carrier's earnings report for its third fiscal quarter.
"U.S. government surface transportation statistics indicate a decline of 27% for the month of January 2009 vs. January 2008," he added. "A decline in U.S. imports, relating to the weakness of the U.S. economy, we believe was a principal factor."
Bob Costello, chief economist for the ATA, said he also wasn't too surprised at March's reading, nor that freight levels remain at historic lows.
"Many fleets were telling us during March that freight was getting a little better. The problem is that freight should be significantly better in March, which is why the seasonally adjusted index fell," he said. "While the industry is desperate for some positive news, it is unfortunate that March's data suggests the industry has not hit bottom just yet."
ATA's advanced seasonally adjusted for-hire truck tonnage index fell 4.5 percent in March marked the first month-to-month decrease of 2009 and wiped out the 4.5% gain in freight compiled over January and February.
Compared with March 2008, tonnage contracted 12.2%, which was the second-worst year-over-year decrease of the current cycle, noted Costello – the worst being December 2008, when tonnage dropped 12.5% from the same month one year earlier."
http://fleetowner.com/management/ata-trucking-freight-demand-down-0428/
