Trucking activity in the United States slipped in June as the freight market eroded during the last two months of the second quarter, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) reports.
Specifically, truck freight tonnage decreased 0.4% after falling 0.1% in May, according to ATA’s advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index.
“After a strong start to the second quarter, with tonnage levels increasing sequentially and from a year earlier in April, freight levels eased in May and June,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.
Costello noted that in the second quarter as a whole, truck tonnage was mostly flat, increasing just 0.2% from the first quarter. Tonnage was down 0.2% from Q2 2024, however.
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“Freight levels have been helped recently by small gains in factory output and retail sales, but weaker construction activity, especially for single-family homes, has been a drag on volumes,” Costello concluded.
In June, the ATA advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index equaled 113.3, down from 113.8 in May. The index, which is based on 2015 as 100, slipped 0.1% from the same month last year after falling 1.3% in May. Year-to-date, compared with the same period in 2024, tonnage was up 0.1%.
The not seasonally adjusted index, which calculates raw changes in tonnage hauled, equaled 114.9 in June, 1.1% below May’s reading of 116.2.
