Truck tonnage levels saw a mild increase to end 2025, according to data issued today by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).
ATA reported that its December advanced Seasonally Adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index reading, at 112.9, topped November’s 112.4, and was up 0.9% annually, following two straight months of annual declines in October and November. For the fourth quarter, ATA reported that the index was down 1.8% compared to the third quarter, marking the largest sequential quarterly decrease since the second quarter of 2003, and was off 0.3% annually.
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 111.9 in December, beating out November’s 107.3 by 4.3%.
ATA officials said that both of these indices are dominated by contract freight, instead of spot market freight.
“Despite two consecutive gains, tonnage remains at low levels as the freight metric contracted a total of 2.7% in September and October,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Soft manufacturing and construction activity are continuing to suppress freight levels, as they did for much of last year. For 2025 in total, tonnage rose just 0.1% over the 2024 average, although it was the first annual gain since 2022.”
