American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index was down 2.3 percent in March after decreasing 1.5 percent in February. In March, the index equaled 113.2 (2015=100) compared with 115.8 in February.

“In March, and really the first quarter in total, tonnage was negatively impacted by bad winter storms throughout much of the U.S.,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “While I expected tonnage to moderate in the first quarter, the late Easter holiday and the winter storms made it worse. It is likely that tonnage will improve in the second quarter, although year-over-year gains will be significantly below the 2018 annual increase of 6.7 percent.”

February’s reading was revised down compared with the March press release.

Compared with March 2018, the SA index increased 1.6 percent, down from February’s 3.9 percent gain. During the first quarter, tonnage was up 3.8 percent from the same period in 2018.

The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 116.3 in March, 10.3 percent above February’s level (105.5). In calculating the index, 100 represents 2015.

Trucking serves as a barometer of the U.S. economy, representing 70.2 percent of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation, including manufactured and retail goods. Trucks hauled 10.77 billion tons of freight in 2017. Motor carriers collected $700.1 billion, or 79.3 percent of total revenue earned by all transport modes.