Truck tonnage continues climb

U.S. for-hire truck tonnage edged up 0.6% in January, according to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), adding to recent gains. "January's gain was the sixth straight totaling 4.4%," said ATA chief economist Bob Costello. "The index, which is dominated by contract freight with only small amounts of spot market truck freight, is off 3.9% from the all-time high in August 2019 and only 1.5% below March 2020 when the pandemic hit.

In January, truck tonnage was helped by rising retail sales and factory output.

While housing starts fell last month, which is another important driver of truck tonnage, it remained at high levels."

Tonnage is up 1.2% year over year, marking the fifth straight such gain.