John Taggart/Bloomberg News
Truck tonnage rose 0.7% in March compared with March 2016, although American Trucking Associations’ chief economist said that late winter storms hurt the index compared with this past February.
On a sequential basis, ATA’s tonnage index fell 1% in March after a 0.1% decline in February.
The preliminary seasonally adjusted index was 137.5 in March compared with 138.7 in February. The all-time high in February 2016 was 142.7. The index uses a base level of 100 for freight activity in the year 2000.
“Despite last month’s dip, seasonally adjusted tonnage rose 1.2% during the first quarter overall from the previous quarter and increased 0.2% from the same quarter last year,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.
The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets, was 143.9 in March, which was 14.6% above the February total.
The DAT North American Freight Index surged 58% to 489 in March compared with 2016 levels due to more freight demand, although spot market truckload rates only slightly improved. DAT uses a base level of 100 for spot market activity in the year 2000.
The national average spot rates for dry and refrigerated vans went up a penny to $1.63 per mile and $1.87 per mile in March, respectively, compared with February. The average flatbed rate increased 6 cents to $2.03.
“Rates rose in the last week of March, as shippers rushed freight out to end the quarter on a high note, but that was not enough to offset soft market conditions from early March,” Don Thornton, DAT senior vice president.
Demand for flatbed trucking remained strong in March for the construction and energy sectors. Flatbed load posts rose 45% while truck posts increased 6% compared with February. The load-to-truck ratio for flatbed rose to 36.6 — a measurement of the number of flatbed loads for each truck on the DAT network — a 109% gain over March 2016.
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