April truck tonnage came in flat, following gains in February and March, according to data issued by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) this week.
ATA reported that its April Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index reading, aT 117.8 (2015=100) matched March’s reading, which was upwardly revised from 117.0) and was up 3.5% annually, below the 3.7% annual gain seen in March.
ATA reported that its March Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index reading, at 117.8 (2015=100) topped February’s 116.6, while posting a 3% annual gain, marking its highest annual gain going back to October 2022. And, for the first quarter, SA for-hire tonnage posted a 2.1% annual gain. For calendar year 2025, the SA For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index came in flat when compared to the 2025 average.
Through the first four months of 2026, ATA reported that SA tonnage was up 2.6% annually, whereas 2024 came in flat compared to 2024.
The ATA’s not seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by fleets before any seasonal adjustment and the metric ATA says fleets should benchmark their levels with, came in at 116.8 in April, trailing March’s 120.9 reading by 3.4%.
ATA said that these indices “are dominated by contract freight, as opposed to traditional spot market freight.”
ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said that April’s flat SA reading is viewed as more impressive, when taking into account that it saw a cumulative 4.7% increase, going back to the end of 2025, while not decreasing, so far, in 2016.
“The index is back to levels last seen during the fall of 2022,” said Costello.
